Public TV, Armenia
Feb 14 2008

Armenian election body releases details on candidates’ campaign
expenditure

[Presenter] The Armenian Central Electoral Commission has started
sending ballot papers to the regions beginning from today. The
Armenian money collecting agency delivers the ballot papers by cars
that mostly carry cash. The ballot boxes used in the 2007
parliamentary election will also be used in the 19 February
presidential election. All the election materials were shown to
journalists at the Central Electoral Commission today and they were
also informed of campaign expenditure by the presidential candidates.

[Correspondent] The presidential election will start in five days.
Election materials were shown at the Central Electoral Commission
today. Examples of the ballot papers and posters of the nine
presidential candidates will be put up on walls in the polling
stations soon.

[Passage omitted: Ara Harutyunyan, head of the audit and inspection
service under the Armenian Central Electoral Commission, shows
election materials and explains how they are being used]

[Correspondent] The Central Electoral Commission has also presented
the latest information on campaign expenditures provided by the
presidential candidates.

[Ara Harutyunyan] The presidential candidates have currently spent
about 190.9m drams [533,240 dollars] of 199.6m [557,541 dollars] of
their funds on campaign adverts.

[Correspondent] These figures apply to eight presidential candidates,
as presidential candidate Arman Melikyan has not added any money to
his fund and has not spent any either. The presidential candidates
have spent over 60 per cent of their funds on campaign adverts. The
election funds have also been financed at the expense of presidential
candidates’ own money, apart from the legal and physical entities.
Presidential candidate [and owner of ALM Holding] Tigran Karapetyan
alone has spent only his own money on campaign adverts.