ArmInfo.The Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) is satisfied with the results of local elections that took place on September 18, Vice Speaker of the Armenian Parliament, RPA Spokesperson Eduard Sharmazanov has told ArmInfo's correspondent.
He says that nearly 70% of the votes given in favor of the RPA cannot help satisfying the party. "Any choice of the people deserves respect, but a 70% vote of confidence is a satisfactory and at the same time binding factor. We should work harder to justify the positive expectations of our voters," he says.
As regards the statements of the opposition and NGOs regarding electoral fraud, Sharmazanov advises all people having specific facts about electoral fraud to apply to the authorized structures. "For our part, we will be taking consistent measures to hold all the offenders accountable," he notes.
To note, Armenia's Central Electoral Commission has received 8 requests to recalculate the ballots at 11 polling stations. The press-service of CEC Armenia reports that 142 more statements related to the past local elections have been received from observers and media representatives. Numerous violations were reported as the first stage of elections to the local self-government was over in 37 communities in Armenia on September 18. In particular, Citizen Observer and Transparency International report various cases of violations during the voting, such as ballot-stuffing, voting outside polling stations, frightening of voters, queues, multiple voting, obstruction of the activity of journalists and observers. In the town of Etchmiadzin, the passions ran so high that one of the candidates was kidnapped reportedly by the incumbent mayor's supporters. It is noteworthy that the incumbent mayor Karen Grigoryan is the son of MP, General Mavel Grigoryan. A criminal case was initiated on the fact. The beaten candidate for mayor is still in hospital. To note, the turnout was 49% throughout the republic. Overall results of the elections are not known yet.