YEREVAN (RFE/RL)–A pro-government candidate won a weekend by-election to Armenia’s parliament amid fraud allegations made by representatives of his arrested opposition challenger and some independent monitors.
The election was marked by an extremely low turnout. According to the Central Election Commission (CEC), only 24 percent of some 55,800 eligible voters in a central Yerevan constituency bothered to cast their ballots on Sunday.
The lack of popular interest in the tightly contested vote appears to have hurt Nikol Pashinian, the main opposition candidate standing trial on charges stemming from the March 2008 unrest in the capital. Preliminary official votes showed him winning 37.5 percent of the vote and trailing his pro-government rival, Ara Simonian, who got 57 percent.
The opposition Armenian National Congress, of which Pashinian is a senior member, rejected the election results as fraudulent and said it will challenge them in court. It claimed at the same time that the official vote tally testifies to the organization’s “strength and growing authority.”
Pashinian issued a separate statement from his prison cell, saying that he understands the “disappointment” of Congress activists and other supporters with the course and outcome of the ballot which he also condemned as fraudulent. The outspoken editor of the pro-opposition daily “Armenian Times” urged them not to fall into “despair” and to continue to fight for leadership change in Armenia.
Both Pashinian and the Congress alleged a long list of irregularities, including vote buying, ballot stuffing and intimidation of opposition proxies and election observers by government loyalists. The bloc’s representatives demanded that vote results be annulled in at least two precincts and said they will present evidence other violations to the district election commission this week.
Meanwhile, the leader of the pro-presidential National Unity Party (NUP), with which Simonian is affiliated, insisted that the vote was free and fair and that his supporters were not responsible for violent attacks on opposition members reported on polling day.
Artashes Geghamian also thanked the three parties represented in Armenia’s government for facilitating the NUP candidate’s victory.
As a representative of the US Embassy observing this election on Sunday, I can confirm that this election was nothing less than a circus. Pro government loyalists were intimidating observers, harrassing journalists and other proxies, ballot stuffing, shouting and walking around like 10 year old bullies with their chests stuffed out. If Armenia continues in this manner, not only will the US continue to cut funding on fundamental programs which are improving the quality of life in Armenia (such as rural irrigation programs) but it will continue to be the laughing stock of other nations