Armenian National Congress Prepares to Nominate Candidates in All Electoral Districts

The Armenian National Congress (HAK) is preparing to nominate candidates in all 41 electoral districts competing on the partyl-list basis in the upcoming parliamentary elections, said Levon Zurabyan, coordinator of HAK’s day-to-day affairs, at an association of political analysts in Armenia meeting today. According to Zurabyan, this will allow HAK to have 4,000 proxies and better oversee the elections process.

Recall, the opposition bloc’s request for 2,000 election observers from Europe to monitor the May elections was rejected by the OSCE.

“We’re familiar with ill-fated observer missions: In 2008, they were present at the elections like they were tourists; they preferred to frequent hotels than follow what was happening [in the country]. In the outcome, they issued a statement with which they legitimized the illegal authorities and which led those authorities to opt for [the events of] Mar. 1,” he said, adding that HAK was asking for 2,000 observers so that there will be an observer in every polling station and not for observers to go from one station to another.

The Feb. 12 mayoral elections in Hrazdan, according to the opposition representative, proved that the Armenian authorities have no intention of holding democratic elections in the country.

In his opinion, the government does everything possible during elections so that its opponent doesn’t have equal conditions, but for this to be invisible to the public.

“Everything was happening outside of the polling station. Thanks to monitoring the situation in polling stations, the Armenian National Congress received an unprecedented 47% [of the votes]. This proves that HAK has a huge electorate. In a country that is experiencing a serious crisis, people are emigrating, how is a burst of voters in some small city possible? This is what happened: about 4,000 voters, their records falsified, were included in voters’ lists,” he said.

On calls of not voting in elections at all (believing them to be rigged anyway), Zurabyan disagreed and said: “We consider that elections are the best way to mobilize society. HAK will use all elections to improve the situation in Armenia.”