Epress.am News from Armenia
Alita Sardaryan, a member of the election commission at 4/20 polling station in Yerevan's Arabkir administrative district, claims she's witnessed gross violations on constitutional amendments referendum day – December 6, 2015 – at the said precinct. Armenia's Special Investigation Committee is currently investigating reports of numerous infringements, while the woman claims she's yet to receive her salary from the Central Electoral Commission.
Sardaryan was stationed at the 4/20 precinct as a representative of opposition party Armenian National Congress. In an interview with Epress.am, she said the the chairman of the election committee, Prosperous Armenian Party member Nikolay Mosinyan, was “unable to control the situation,” as well as “violated the law” by leaving the station during the vote count.
“It was Mosinyan's first time participating in an election, and he did not know what he was doing. He was aware of neither [referendum] regulations nor his rights and responsibilities. He was rather anxious throughout the day; people who had no right to be at the voting station coming and going constantly.
“Davit Marukyan, a representative of the [Armenia’s ruling] Republican Party and lawmaker Edmon Marukyan’s cousin, was one of the biggest forgers. He’d say that [the MP] had his back,” Sardaryan stated.
The commission member told that thanks to hard work throughout the day they were mainly able to prevent tampering; however, a number of problems arose during the vote count when Davit Marukyan insisted on personally counting the “No” ballots. “He sat down and placed an open bag at his feet [under the table]. One of the observers, Ani, began to film him from behind which made Mosinyan rather nervous. He told her to shoot from a different angle, and Ani said she'd do so only if Mosinyan took the bag from under the table.
“Then they started to take out the ballots – there'd be 30 against votes versus one for. The commission chairman started to panic, Republican proxies tried to initiate a brawl several times but I ordered them to leave the premises. As a result, there were 436 'No,' 167 'Yes,' and 43 invalid ballots.”
After vote counting was completed, the woman said, the ballots were placed in a bag, a deed was signed and sealed, and the bag was put in a box. Relieved, Sardaryan began to draw up another deed when she noticed Mosinyan leave the voting station. She phoned the chairman several times to no avail. He reappeared only 40 minutes later, after Sardaryan announced loudly she was going to call journalists. The woman assumed Mosinyan had been notified of her intention and returned out of fear.
“He was visibly agitated, pale upon arrival. I told him he had violated the law, that he had no right to leave the precinct. He sat on a chair and began hitting himself in the head. A Republican proxy told me that Mosinyan was not feeling well, but I replied that he had to sign the other three deeds no matter what.
“He then took the deeds, changed the numbers – 997 'Yes' and 122 'No' – and told me to sign them. I say, 'Are you insane? What are these numbers?' He's like, 'I write what I like. I'm not going behind bars because of you, nor will I allow my family to get harmed.'
“I told him I did not care who had threatened him, and quickly took away the papers from his hands and hid them. He panicked, rushed upstairs and seized the box [with the ballot bag]. I started screaming that the they were taking away the box, told police officers to seal the doors, but they said they had no right to and had to obey the chairman.
“Mosinyan, along with two other clerks and Davit Marukyan, left the station with the box, without signing the deeds. They returned the box an hour later. Subsequently, the Central Electoral Commission (CEC) also presented Mosinyan's fabricated numbers, and I refused to sign under them.”
Sardaryan showed Epress.am the papers she'd managed to seize from Mosinyan and which, as she claims had been tampered with by the committee chairman.
Currently Sardaryan is trying to get the salary she is owed for working on December 6. Officials at the territorial election commission have told the woman she would not receive any money unless she signed the deeds, which Sardaryan finds “ridiculous.”
“I've signed the original document, as well as the logbook,” she told Epress.am.
The CEC has asked Sardaryan to present evidence that she worked on referendum day. The woman hopes that the papers she has on her hands will be enough to make the CEC pay her salary.