FLOUR MILLER LEVON PLAYS HIS USUAL ROLE
by Naira Mamikonyan’s
Aravot, Armenia
Feb 26 2008
On Sunday, 24 February, the Central Election Commission convened an
extraordinary session at which the final results of the presidential
election were announced.
[Passage omitted: details of election result; opposition protests;
some officials back opposition; rumours of crackdown on protests
by authorities]
Start of recount delayed
On 23 February, at the request of the proxies of presidential candidate
Levon Ter-Petrosyan, the electoral commission of the fifth electoral
district was to conduct a recount of votes from polling station
number 5/21.
The acting US ambassador to Armenia, Joseph Pennington, was present
at the recount.
As a reminder, on polling day a fight took place at this polling
station, which is situated in the Yerevan school named after
Shirvanzade. Before the voting started, Ter-Petrosyan’s proxies
discovered that the door of the strongbox was open. In addition,
during the vote count, ballots for Ter-Petrosyan were placed in the
pile of ballots for another candidate. A protocol was drafted, but
it was not recorded in the register.
Before the start of the recount, in which the representative of
the Heritage party [which backed Ter-Petrosyan in the election] in
the Central Electoral Commission, Zoya Tadevosyan, and MPs from the
Heritage and Orinats Yerkir [Law-Governed Country] factions were to
participate, it turned out the register of electoral commission No
5 had disappeared. Then the commission chairman pretended to be sick
and went to see a doctor and didn’t return.
The beginning of the recount process had already been delayed for
several hours. In the end, after it had been decided to open the
sack with ballots, 10 well-built men entered the building, as well
as high-ranking officers from the Mashtots and Davitashen district
police departments of the capital. They demanded that the vote recount
process should be suspended until the arrival of a representative of
the Prosecutor-General’s Office. They said that they had received a
signal from an unidentified person that a crime had been committed
in the electoral commission building.
Journalists locked out from recount
As we [Aravot journalists] arrived at the building of electoral
commission No 5, MP Levon Sargsyan (also known as Alrahaci [Flour
Miller] Levik) also arrived at the "scene of the crime" with his
skinhead bodyguards. Sargsyan entered the premises unhindered, as
did the journalists.
At that moment, the atmosphere in the corridor of the electoral
commission was already supercharged with more than 30 people present
(mostly police officers in plain clothes), with MPs from the Orinats
Yerkir and the Heritage factions, as well as Levon Sargsyan’s
bodyguards and [Prime Minister] Serzh Sargsyan’s assistant Levon
Martirosyan.
With the aid of the police officers, Levon Sargsyan’s bodyguards
locked the door of the commission’s room and stood on guard, waiting
till the MP finished resolving his issues.
Behind the door, people were arguing loudly. The police officers,
bodyguards and the prime minister’s assistant did their best to
prevent the journalists from entering the commission’s room to be
present during the vote recount, receiving explanations regarding the
situation, and taking photos and videos of what was happening in the
corridor, including a fight with the participation of MPs.
Bodyguards brawl with journalists
Eventually, a young woman, who introduced herself as an observer
but who nonetheless remained in the corridor all the time giving
instructions, opened the door of the room where the commission was
sitting, and taking us for correspondents from the First TV Channel
[Public TV] invited us to make a report on how MP [Zaruhi] Postanjyan
[of Heritage] allegedly makes orders.
After we entered, the girl understood that she had invited in the wrong
people, and tried to force us out. A brawl started. It was provoked by
Alrahaci Levik, who threw a plastic bottle at the photo correspondent
of the Chorrord Ishkhanutyun and Aravot newspapers, Gagik Shamshyan.
The MP swore and expressed dissatisfaction with the fact that he was
being photographed. This was the signal for action for Sargsyan’s
gang. In the presence of the police officers, the commission room
was turned upside down. An attempt was made to take the camera from
Shamshyan. At the same time, all the other journalists were pushed
out of the room. Shamshyan’s camera and an A1+ [TV channel] video
camera were broken. The videocassette was removed from the latter.
The MPs, Central Election Commission member Zoya Tadevosyan and
Ter-Petrosyan’s proxies left the electoral commission together with
the journalists. After our departure, the police officers inspected
the "scene of the crime", drafted a protocol, sealed the sack with
ballots and sent it to the investigation department.
According to Aravot’s information, materials for a criminal case
against Zoya Tadevosyan are being prepared based on the fact she did
not have the right to open the sack with ballots.