Human Rights Defender urged Armenian citizens not to sell their votes
during the elections

February 1, 2008

Yerevan /Mediamax/. Human Rights Defender (Ombudsman) Armen Harutiunian
urged today the Armenian citizens not to sell their votes during the
presidential elections on February 19.

Mediamax reports that, speaking at a briefing in Yerevan today, he
noted that `if the elections are based not on ideas, but on bribing the
electors, we will get a system, in which it will be simply meaningless
talking about human rights’.

The Ombudsman believes that `the political force, which buys votes,
will have no moral commitments for the people, will not be interested
in the improvement of the social-economic situation, and will not be
assisting the real protection of civil liberties’.

`Our citizens should stand up for their votes, their voting right’,
Armen Harutiunian stressed.

He informed that there is a `Hotline’ functioning under the Office of
the Ombudsman, with the help of which the electors, the trustees and
the observers may present their complaints.

The `Hotline’ is functioning by the following telephone numbers:
53-76-51, 53-92-71, 53-88-31, 53-76-34, 53-85-77, 091 00-88-17, 091
28-02-06.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress