ACCORDING TO ARMEN RUSTAMIAN, SOME STILL CONSIDER ELECTIONS BUSINESS IN ARMENIA

Noyan Tapan
May 26, 2009
Yerevan

Elections already becoming annual in Armenia call forth more questions
than answers. To all appearances, Yerevan Council of Elders elections
scheduled for May 31 will not be an exception, either. ARFD Supreme
Body representative, RA NA deputy Armen Rustamian said at the May 26
meeting with journalists.

He said that Dashnaktsutiun has already received reports on some
violations. In particular, according to rumors, all term servicemen
being Yerevan residents are promised a leave provided that they should
vote for the respective list. Voter buying is also spoken about,
at that, various sums are mentioned. According to A. Rustamian, some
consider elections a business in Armenia and try to gain as much money
as possible in that process. It is not accidental that brawls start
before any election when those financing elections try to find out
why they received less votes than envisaged for the funds they spent.

A. Rustamian said that like in previous elections, no disputes between
competitor parties’ candidates take place. While Yerevan government
system need to be changed, and the way of passing from the old to new
could have been the main subject of dispute between forces running
for the elections.

According to A. Rustamian, before elections Dashnaktsutiun has
always called for fighting violations with joint forces, even has
proposed establishing a united headquarters on informing about
falsifications. However, it is difficult to come to an agreement
on some issues between Armenia’s political forces, and this time
Dashnaktsutiun will try to solve the issue on its own: ARFD will
have 2-3 representatives, a commission member and proxies, in all 439
Yerevan polling stations. ARFD is going to involve its resources from
the whole country for that purpose.