Epress.am News from Armenia
Voters across Armenia began on Sunday morning casting ballots in parliamentary elections – the first major electoral event since the adoption of the 2015 constitutional reforms seeking to transform the country into a parliamentary republic.
In the first few hours of voting, the Citizen Observer initiative, the Independent Observer public union, and the Helsinki Committee of Armenia have already recorded multiple cases of electoral fraud in a number of precincts across Armenia.
The majority of the violations, according to observers, have occurred in polling places in Yerevan’s Malatia-Sebastia (7/9), Erebuni (10/39, 10/5), Kentron (9/44, 9/36, 9/37, 9/35, 9 /16, 9/30), Nor Nork (2/30) administrative districts – accumulation of people, voter tampering, malfunction or lack of technical devices.
At Kentron’s 9/44 precinct, in particular, observers have recorded violations of the secrecy of voting, instances of voting control by outsiders, violations of the procedure for rendering assistance to a voter – assistance by a person who does not have the corresponding right. At the 9/52 polling station, there have been identified cases of repeated voting and voting instead of other persons.
The above mentioned violations have also been recorded at the 10/5 polling station in Erebuni district, accompanied by the presence on the premises of an unacceptably large crowd of people or persons with no identity cards.
At the 36/29 polling station in the Vayots Dzor village of Vernashen, observers said there was no ramp for wheelchairs; “The doors are also quite narrow, and voters in wheelchairs are therefore literally unable to enter the polling station.”
At the 23/21 polling station in Vanadzor, observers have witnessed multiple instances of assistance to voters who did not need help. When asked by an observer why they were being accompanied by a stranger, a voter replied; “No reason at all; they simply don’t trust that I’ll vote as they want me to.”