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NO RECTOR WAS ELECTED

08:54 pm 22 March, 2006

During 8.5 hours the voters did not manage to elect a rector for the
Yerevan State University. In the third phase too none of the
candidates collected the necessary amount of votes: Aram Simonyan had
20 votes for, and Gagik Ghazinyan – 36, which is only one vote shy of
the necessary amount. 11 voters voted against everyone, and three
ballots were announced invalid.

The elections will take place in 50 days – on May 15.

RECTOR OF THE YEREVAN STATE UNIVERSITY WILL BE ELECTED IN THE THIRD
PHASE

Since midday till now the session hall of the central building of the
Yerevan State University is full of people. The reason is the election
of the rector of the University.

There were four candidates: vice rector of the University Aram
Simonyan, Dean of the faculty of Mathematics Gegham Gevorgyan, Dean of
the law faculty Gagik Ghazinyan and Dean of the faculty of physics
Samvel Haroutyunyan. 50% of the voters were representatives of the
Government and the Ministry of Education and Sciences, and the other
half were representatives of the University professors and
students. Of the 72 electors two were absent: NA deputy Speaker Tigran
Torosyan who is participating in the CE works and Dean of the oriental
studies faculty Gourgen Meliqyan who is in hospital.

The session was closed. The journalists followed the course of events
from the corridor trying to guess what is going on on the other side
of the doors. During the session the candidates made speech about
their plans and answered the questions of those present.

«It is meaningless to speak about any support before the electoral
process. The atmosphere was fine today», Aram Simonyan said. The
voting took place after the break. As a result Aram Simonyan had 21
votes for, Gegham Gevorgyan – 16, Gagik Ghazinyan – 28, and Samvel
Haroutyunyan – four. One of the electors voted against all the
candidates. The first two candidates reached the second phase. But now
that the second phase has finished the rector has not been elected
yet. Gagik Ghazinyan has 32 votes, and Aram Simonyan – 23. 7 votes
were invalid, and 8 people voted against everyone.

By the way, one of the members of the University Governing Council
mentioned, «Everything is fabricated. They are simply playing a
game». One of the student added, «There has been no physical
pressure upon the students, but there has been psychological
pressure».