DASHNAKS SIGN ‘CONTRACTS’ WITH GYUMRI VOTERS
Satenik Vantsian

Armenialiberty.org

Aug 22, 2011

The Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun) has started
signing symbolic contracts with voters in Gyumri as part of a public
campaign against electoral fraud that was announced by the opposition
party early this year.

>>From a red tent pitched in a major city square on Saturday,
Dashnaktsutyun activists are urging local residents to pledge, in
writing, to vote in the next elections to be held in Armenia.

“What we want to do is to convince every citizen and voter, to make
them understand that they must definitely take part in elections,”
one of the activists, Aram Hakobian, told RFE/RL’s Armenian service
(Azatutyun.am) on Monday.

“Between 200,000 and 300,000 people don’t take part in elections and
that failure to vote makes it possible for others to vote in their
place,” he said, referring to what is widely seen as a key source of
chronic vote irregularities in the country.

According to Hakobian, more than 400 Gyumri voters have already signed
such contracts.

Most locals walking by the Dashnaktsutyun stand on Monday morning
seemed indifferent to the campaign, though. And some of those who
took notice were skeptical about its success.

“If this action serves its purpose that will be great, but everyone
here is bribed,” said one middle-aged man.

“They are just wasting paper,” another voter said after signing a
contract. “I’m in favor of some change. But by whom? That I don’t
know.”

Dashnaktsutyun launched the campaign called “A Vote is Power” last
February with the stated aim of facilitating the proper conduct of the
next presidential, parliamentary and local elections. Party leaders
said it will focus on raising public awareness of electoral rights
and discouraging Armenians from selling their votes.

Vote buying, banned by Armenian law, has been widespread in the
country since the 1990s.

Dashnaktsutyun leaders also said in February that they are ready
to cooperate with all other opposition forces, including the rival
Armenian National Congress (HAK), in preventing vote rigging.

The HAK shrugged off the campaign at the time, saying that
Dashnaktsutyun has no moral right to campaign for free and fair
elections because it has recognized official results of disputed
ballots held since the late 1990s.

Dashnaktsutyun representatives countered that the first reputedly
fraudulent national elections were held in 1995 and 1996 when Armenia
was governed by President Levon Ter-Petrosian, the HAK’s top leader.