THREE REPORTERS BEATEN UP AT POLLING STATION IN YEREVAN

Interfax
May 31 2009
Russia

Three opposition newspaper reporters were beaten up at a polling
station during Sunday’s mayoral election in Yerevan, the opposition
Armenian National Congress (ANK) told Interfax.

Parliamentary deputy and businessman Levon Sarsian walked into a
polling station on Sunday morning and "ordered his bodyguards to throw
out female journalists Goar Vezirian of the newspaper Chetvyortaya
Vlast (Fourth Power), Tatev Mesropian of the Ayk newspaper and Marineh
Kharatian of the newspaper Zhamanak Yerevan, ANK said in a statement.

"Disregarding the reporters’ protests, the bodyguards beat them up,
took away their recorders and cell phones, and walked them out of the
polling station. The journalists are preparing to file a complaint
with police," it said.

Yerevan is electing the Elders’ Council on Sunday, after which the
city’s new mayor will be picked.

Seven political forces are taking part in the Elders’ Council election:
The Prospering Armenia and Orinats Yerkir parties, the People’s
Party, the Republican Party, the Armenian Revolutionary Federation
Dashnaktsutyun, the opposition Armenian National Congress and the
Workers-Socialist Party of Armenia.

Armenian political analysts, questioned by Interfax, said the main
rivals are the Republican Party, led by the Armenian president, and
the opposition Armenian National Congress, whose party tickets are
respectively led by incumbent Yerevan Mayor Gagik Beglarian and ex-
President Levon Ter-Petrosian.