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'NEIGHBORHOOD GUYS' DEFINE ANOTHER ARMENIAN ELECTION
http://asbarez.com/109815/%E2%80%98neighborhood-guys%E2%80%99-define-another-armenian-election/
Monday, May 6th, 2013
YEREVAN (RFE/RL)-Groups of pro-government youths standing in or
outside polling stations, keeping a watchful eye on voters and clearly
influencing the process have been a fixture in Armenian elections and
Sunday's municipal polls in Yerevan were not an exception to this rule.
Their menacing presence, largely ignored by the police despite
running counter to Armenia's Electoral Code, could be observed in
various parts of the city throughout the voting. As was the case in
the previous elections, opposition activists accused them of bribing
and intimidating voters.
The men commonly known as "neighborhood guys" mainly working
for the ruling Republican Party were again reluctant to talk to
journalists. Some of them responded to questions from RFE/RL's Armenian
service (Azatutyun.am) with anger and even threats.
About a dozen such men rushed away from an RFE/RL correspondent when
she approached them outside a polling station in Yerevan's northern
Nor Nork district. "Don't film me or I'll hit you in the head with
this," one of them said, pointing to his mobile phone.
"Put the camera away," protested another young man.
Karen Karapetian, a proxy of the opposition Armenian National Congress
at the local election commission, pleaded with the reporter to stay at
the polling station for a while. "Your camera will scare them away,"
he explained. "Or else, they will keep directing people."
"Isn't it clear in whose favor they are directing people? Of course
not in the opposition's but the ruling party's favor," he said.
There were clear indications of such pressure inside another polling
station in Nor Nork. Several young men, who were neither proxies nor
election officials, looked on as local residents cast ballots there
in large numbers. "I'm waiting for my neighbors to vote so we can go
home together," one of them claimed before an Republican Party proxy
there began filming the journalist.
Election observers dismissed such claims, saying that the men voted
much earlier and are simply staying put in breach of the law.
Another young man, who refused to identify his status, gave guidance
to an elderly woman outside the polling station moments later.
"Granny, don't talk to her," he told the woman when she was approached
by the journalist. "Whatever she says, don't answer."
Tension ran high within the multi-partisan commission that administered
voting in that precinct. Suranuysh Petrosian, the commission's
chairwoman affiliated with the opposition HAK, accused one of its
pro-government members, Anahit Barseghian, of helping government
loyalists to carry out vote buying.
"I noticed that she kept a list [of voters,] marked the names of those
voters who showed up and those who didn't, and gradually passed that
list on to Republican guys so that they bring in people," claimed
Petrosian. "When I tried to stop that she started screaming."
"I had no lists," insisted Barseghian. "I was just checking to see
whether or not [residents of] two apartments came to vote."
In neighboring Avan district, a middle-aged woman standing outside
two adjacent polling places held what looked a list of voters. She
hid the papers and hastily made her way into a nearby apartment block
when asked to disclose their content.
"I won't tell you what's written there. No, it's not a list," the
woman said after emerging from the building shortly afterwards.
"You're getting on my nerves. Why are you forcing me to smash your
camera?" she added angrily.
In the southern Yerevan suburb of Noragyugh, RFE/RL's Armenian
service (Azatutyun.am) followed a commuter minibus that stopped by
local houses, collected their residents one by one and drove them to
a nearby polling station. A woman who escorted the dozen or so voters
angrily denied telling them to vote for a particular party. "Shame
on you," she said before escorting the voters to another minibus.
The Republican Party of Armenia was accused by its political opponents
of busing allegedly bribed voters to polling stations throughout the
day. The ruling party denied those allegations.
http://asbarez.com/109815/%E2%80%98neighborhood-guys%E2%80%99-define-another-armenian-election/
Monday, May 6th, 2013
YEREVAN (RFE/RL)-Groups of pro-government youths standing in or
outside polling stations, keeping a watchful eye on voters and clearly
influencing the process have been a fixture in Armenian elections and
Sunday's municipal polls in Yerevan were not an exception to this rule.
Their menacing presence, largely ignored by the police despite
running counter to Armenia's Electoral Code, could be observed in
various parts of the city throughout the voting. As was the case in
the previous elections, opposition activists accused them of bribing
and intimidating voters.
The men commonly known as "neighborhood guys" mainly working
for the ruling Republican Party were again reluctant to talk to
journalists. Some of them responded to questions from RFE/RL's Armenian
service (Azatutyun.am) with anger and even threats.
About a dozen such men rushed away from an RFE/RL correspondent when
she approached them outside a polling station in Yerevan's northern
Nor Nork district. "Don't film me or I'll hit you in the head with
this," one of them said, pointing to his mobile phone.
"Put the camera away," protested another young man.
Karen Karapetian, a proxy of the opposition Armenian National Congress
at the local election commission, pleaded with the reporter to stay at
the polling station for a while. "Your camera will scare them away,"
he explained. "Or else, they will keep directing people."
"Isn't it clear in whose favor they are directing people? Of course
not in the opposition's but the ruling party's favor," he said.
There were clear indications of such pressure inside another polling
station in Nor Nork. Several young men, who were neither proxies nor
election officials, looked on as local residents cast ballots there
in large numbers. "I'm waiting for my neighbors to vote so we can go
home together," one of them claimed before an Republican Party proxy
there began filming the journalist.
Election observers dismissed such claims, saying that the men voted
much earlier and are simply staying put in breach of the law.
Another young man, who refused to identify his status, gave guidance
to an elderly woman outside the polling station moments later.
"Granny, don't talk to her," he told the woman when she was approached
by the journalist. "Whatever she says, don't answer."
Tension ran high within the multi-partisan commission that administered
voting in that precinct. Suranuysh Petrosian, the commission's
chairwoman affiliated with the opposition HAK, accused one of its
pro-government members, Anahit Barseghian, of helping government
loyalists to carry out vote buying.
"I noticed that she kept a list [of voters,] marked the names of those
voters who showed up and those who didn't, and gradually passed that
list on to Republican guys so that they bring in people," claimed
Petrosian. "When I tried to stop that she started screaming."
"I had no lists," insisted Barseghian. "I was just checking to see
whether or not [residents of] two apartments came to vote."
In neighboring Avan district, a middle-aged woman standing outside
two adjacent polling places held what looked a list of voters. She
hid the papers and hastily made her way into a nearby apartment block
when asked to disclose their content.
"I won't tell you what's written there. No, it's not a list," the
woman said after emerging from the building shortly afterwards.
"You're getting on my nerves. Why are you forcing me to smash your
camera?" she added angrily.
In the southern Yerevan suburb of Noragyugh, RFE/RL's Armenian
service (Azatutyun.am) followed a commuter minibus that stopped by
local houses, collected their residents one by one and drove them to
a nearby polling station. A woman who escorted the dozen or so voters
angrily denied telling them to vote for a particular party. "Shame
on you," she said before escorting the voters to another minibus.
The Republican Party of Armenia was accused by its political opponents
of busing allegedly bribed voters to polling stations throughout the
day. The ruling party denied those allegations.