Armenian government to verify information about some provincial governors’ interference in electoral processes
27.02.2013,
21:08
Armenian Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan, speaking Wednesday at a regular Q&A session in the National Assembly, said that the government will check information that some provincial governors thanked their subordinates for ensuring a large number of votes to President Serzh Sargsyan in the presidential election.
YEREVAN, February 27. /ARKA/. Armenian Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan, speaking Wednesday at a regular Q&A session in the National Assembly, said that the government will check information that some provincial governors thanked their subordinates for ensuring a large number of votes to President Serzh Sargsyan in the presidential election.
Nikol Pashinyan, MP from the Armenian National Congress, the bloc of opposition parties, said he had learned from Gegharkunik province authorities’ official website that Rafik Grigoryan, the province’s governor, expressed gratitude to his subordinates for doing this.
The lawmaker said Ashot Ghaghramanyan, governor of Armavir province, made a similar statement, and Ashot Ghiziryan, Shirak province governor, resigned for failing to do the same.
“I want to shift your attention on the prohibition for city mayors and provincial governors against campaigning for candidates or ensuring good results to them,” Pashinyan said.
On February 22, Ashot Ghiziryan, governor of Shirak, submitted his resignation to Tigran Sargsyan. The opposition media is full of assumptions that the governor resigned because Raffi Hovannisian, Serzh Sargsyan’s key rival in the presidential election, won 69.5% of votes in Gyumri, capital city of Shirak province, while Serzh Sargsyan scored only 27%.
The prime minister said he hasn’t heard about this before and vowed to sort through the matter.
“I can just say that governors were vigilant and we watched carefully to prevent abuse of administrative resource,” he said. “But if such things happened, we will discuss them and inform you about results.”
The presidential election poll final results released by the Central Election Commission showed that Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan was reelected by 58.64% of votes.
The second vote-getter was Raffi Hovannisian, leader of Heritage party, who disputes the results of the poll, is staging rallies in Armenia’s provinces. In the last Friday, Hovannisian announced the start of the Revolution of Greetings. -0-
