5000 ARMD: ELECTORAL BRIBERY OR OLD-AGE PENSION?

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| 20:33:26 | 07-09-2005 | Social |

Today the resident of Noubarashen Andranik Pogosyan periodically
visited the office of the community head candidate Mher Hovhannisyan
and community head’s office. In the morning he had gone to get his
old-age pension but could not as he had no passport.

“I don’t know, there is a kiosk in the park, I gave it to them, and
they gave 5000 drams to me and said that Mher must be elected. I will
give them their money and demand my passport back”, he complained in
the community head’s office, that is to the opponent of the candidate
who had bribed him.

The present community head Robert Asatryan is one of the candidates for
the post. The other candidates are wrestling coach Mher Hovhannisyan
and member of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation Kamo Berberyan.

We caught no cases of bribing in Mher Hovhannisyan’s office, but there
was a queue of people with passports. There were women who had 4-5
passports in their hands. When we tried to take a photo of the room,
the head of the office Vardan Haroutyunyan took immediately took the
women out of the room.

“The strong are always blamed in suchlike business. The strong cannot
give electoral bribes and cannot take passports, we do not follow
that technique”, said Vardan Haroutyunyan. By the way, he considers
the information about the electoral bribes the result of the black
PR of their opponents, mainly that of Robert Asatryan, who “did not
organize a single youth event in his 22 years of activity”.

Robert Asatryan informed that he “never said anything bad about his
opponents”, and he learned about the taking of passports when the
residents of the community asked him to solicit for them to get
their pensions without passports, but he was told that it is not
possible. The head of the old-age pension fund Varazdat Kirakosyan
claimed that “We do not have the right to give the pension without
the passport and the social card”. As for how many people have been
deprived of the pension because of the absence of passports, he did
not know.

BY the way, the pensioner said that this is the first time they are
requested to show their passports. “I came here and learned that
they will not give the pension without documents, whereas up to now
I always got it with my social card”, said Hasmik Araqelyan who had
gone home and brought her passport. The other citizens in the queue
claimed the same.