PAPER ALLEGES VOTE BUYING AHEAD OF REPEAT PARLIAMENTARY ELECTION IN ARMENIA

Aravot
23 Aug 07, p 3
Yerevan

Excerpt from Margarit Yesayan’s report by Armenian newspaper Aravot
on 23 August headlined "They take election bribe readily"

Money is being distributed and passports are being collected in
constituency No 15 ahead of the repeat parliamentary election to be
held on 26 August.

This summer residents of more than 10 villages and towns of Talin,
Aragatsotn and Armavir [regions] have been in anticipation of the
election.

Some 22m drams [about 65,000 dollars] has been allocated from the
state budget to hold the election.

[Passage omitted: residents say the government could spend that money
on better projects]

We will not disclose the names of the people who talked to us
because they do not want to get into trouble. They, however, give
us information that confirms that passports are being collected and
money is being distributed.

We were not surprised when the election headquarters of the main
candidates, Khachik Manukyan and Mnatsakan Mnatsakanyan, denied
the allegations. We were not surprised either when each of these
headquarters accused their rivals of doing so. However, the voters who
we spoke to said the year was good for them, asking not to disclose
their names. "Of course, they give us money and other things, why
shouldn’t I take it?" a resident of [the village of] Getashen, who
was in Talin "for that exact reason", told us.

Passports are being collected also in Aragatsavan, Talin and in most
of the villages. People say that "passports are being collected but
no money is being distributed now, they say, you’ll get the money
after you vote for Khachik [Manukyan]".

[Passage omitted: Manukyan’s headquarters denied the allegation,
said their rivals "harass" them because Manukyan is the frontrunner]

Artak Sarukhanyan, the head of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation –
Dashnaktsutyun [ARFD] candidate Gurgen Shahiniyan’s Talin headquarters,
told us that he had not personally witnessed cases of passports
being collected.

[Passage omitted: ARFD members, however, seem to be aware of
vote-buying]

The amount of 10,000-15,000 drams [about 35-40 dollars] is named the
election bribe; some expect that it would reach 100 dollars in Talin.

[Passage omitted: Mnatsakanyan’s headquarters too denies allegations]

By the way, Talin residents are surprised by the way the Heritage
party leader is campaigning. They say that Raffi Hovhannisyan would
buy sweets in the village stores giving them to the children he would
meet in the streets.

"That’s how he bribes."