Armenian opposition accuses pro-government parties of ballot-rigging

Mediamax news agency
12 May 07

Yerevan, 13 May: The opposition bloc Impeachment, the New Times Party
and the Republic Party issued a statement today in which they accused
pro-government forces of using "all known methods of ballot-rigging".

The statement says that the pro-government forces – the Republican
Party of Armenia (RPA), the Prosperous Armenia Party, Dashnaktsutyun
and the United Labour Party – "used all known methods of
ballot-rigging – illegal stuffing of ballot papers, bribes and so on".

"During the entire process of voting, there was a barrage of reports
about ballot-rigging from all over the country – not only on the basis
of information from proxies and observers, but also from various radio
and TV companies," the statement says.

Impeachment, New Times and Republic said that "almost all public
transport in Yerevan and other population centres was taken away from
work and used for transporting voters".

"At many polling stations, there were threats, violence and attacks
against proxies and journalists, and such incidents often happened
between representatives of ruling parties – the RPA, Prosperous
Armenia and Dashnaktsutyun," the statement says.

"There is no doubt that final steps will be taken in the next few
hours to falsify the results of the elections. However, we can already
say that all this had a major impact on the final results of the
elections," Impeachment, New Times and Republic said.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress