Sasun Mikaelyan Asserts that His Being Elected ‘Would’ve Been Better for Serzh Sargsyan’

Sasun Mikaelyan, Armenian National Congress member and losing candidate in this past Sunday’s mayoral election in Hrazdan, won’t be talking about the upcoming parliamentary elections at this time — he will speak about those elections at the end of April, said Mikaelyan himself as he began his press conference in Yerevan today, promising to speak about and respond to questions only about the Hrazdan elections.

Mikaelyan also explained why he is not preparing to protest the election results.

“Where should I appeal? I’m supposed to appeal to the administrative court, which didn’t approve even my proxy Vahe Hovsepyan’s application, [because] it had to have [the required] stamps. Who should I appeal to when the entire state was against me? We won, [but] they appointed Aram [Danielyan] as mayor,” he said.

The speaker thanked all those 11,500 Hrazdan residents who voted in his favor — not because they voted for him, but because they voted based on their choice and didn’t succumb to pressure.

“Representatives of the entire state system fought against me — led by [Armenian President] Serzh Sargsyan. To protest would’ve been to put on a show. They couldn’t have beat me with money. I don’t understand what means they used. My nephew, who’s a city employee, was called and asked whether he was participating in his uncle’s election campaign. Aram and Kaval made the republic into their own property. They had to show that Sasun doesn’t have any votes in Hrazdan. Whoever said hi to me was threatened and taken aside and questioned,” he said.

“I’m Serzh Sargsyan’s army comrade — it doesn’t change with anything. [My being elected] would’ve been better for Serzh Sargsyan — he would’ve been relieved of two bribe-takers,” he added.

Asked why he hasn’t congratulated incumbent mayor Aram Danielyan, Mikaelyan said he would’ve congratulated the winning candidate but considering the extent of electoral fraud that took place at the Hrazdan elections, to congratulate Danielyan would mean justifying and supporting electoral fraud.