Susanna Petrosyan, Yerevan. Exclusively to Vestnik Kavkaza
The candidate from the ruling Republican Party of Armenis, Ayk Aykyan, won the early municipal elections in the Armenian town of Ararat on November 10th. He was ahead of his rival, the candidate from Prosperous Armenia, Samvel Barsegyan.
The election campaign was typical. None of requests by PA on holding a meeting on the central square of the town was satisfied. The municipal administration explained its rejections by scheduled sporting and cultural events. However, no events took place, but the candidate from PA had to conduct meetings with voters in yards.
An enormous amount of policemen, including representatives of special task forces, could be seen near voting stations. Almost everywhere voters had to stand in queues. In the first half of the day the police arrested 10 envoys of the PA candidate, while PA’s team registered a lot of irregularities such as bribery and a new know-how – owners didn’t know voting citizens who were registered in their apartments.
The voter turnout was fantastically big – 67% of voters came to voting stations. However, the signature is the same. “The authorities used all their resources and voting falsifications – terror, bribes. The power machine worked hard in Ararat, like during all-national elections. However, they managed to gain an advantage of only 300 votes,” the secretary of the parliament fraction of PA, Naira Zograbyan, says.
RPA’s representatives stated that the results of the mayor elections in Ararat were the next brilliant victory by the Republican team which is headed by Serge Sargsyan. “We have proved again that we are stronger and will always be stronger than others,” the governor of the Ararat region, Aramis Grigoryan, said.
Meanwhile, the elections played a role in crystallization of the political opposition field. The Armenian National Congress (ANC) addressed its supporters to vote for PA. “Any elections should be used as an opportunity to weaken the regime,” the vice president of ANC, Levon Zurabyan, said. Other opposition forces – Heritage and Dashnaktsutyun – stayed indifferent to the elections. Some experts considered the position as a support of authorities. How can the forces which called themselves opposition be indifferent to elections in the country where economics are based on the oligarchic regime, the main “hero” of an offshore scandal is the Premier, the number of the poor is close to 40%, and migration is huge?
After the elections in Ararat, the moderate opposition PA which calls itself an alternative to the power will probably move toward the radical opposition ANC which demands the resignation of the President. It appears the authorities by their own hands made PA and ANC approach each other.
On the other hand, the ruling RPA which had to use all administrative and financial resources won by only 300 votes. The Armenian authorities try to prevent all internal political processes in the country. They provide a total control policy for this. However, the strategy doesn’t give desired results - weakening political opponents and improving their own positions.
