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Institute for War and Peace Reporting, UK
IWPR Caucasus Reporting #687
May 13 2013
Local Polls Deal Further Blow to Armenian Opposition
President's party to control capital, as opposition groups claim
electoral fraud.
By Vahe Harutyunyan - Caucasus
CRS Issue 687
Following victories in presidential and parliamentary elections,
Armenia's ruling party swept to victory in a key local election this
month, posing serious questions about how opposition groups can
recover.
Since the capital Yerevan is home to about 40 per cent of a national
population of 2.9 million people, control of the city council is a
crucial factor in politics.
In the May 5 local elections, the Republican Party increased its
representation in the Yerevan assembly from 35 to 42 of the 65 seats,
meaning that once again it gets to choose the mayor.
Victory in Yerevan further consolidated the Republicans, who won the
May 2012 parliamentary polls and whose leader Serzh Sargsyan was
re-elected as president this February.
Yerevan's current mayor, Taron Margaryan, became mayor in November
2011, and was top of the Republican list of candidates in this
election, despite the scandal over his refusal to identify the origin
of six million US dollars in earnings which he declared ahead of the
polls.
The election left the opposition party Prosperous Armenia party with
the 17 seats it already held on the city council, while a newer
opposition bloc called Hello Yerevan won six seats. Two large
opposition groups, the Armenian National Congress and Dashnaktsutyun,
failed to overcome the six per cent threshold required to gain seats
on the assembly.
Opposition parties cried foul, accusing the Republican Party of using
its access to state resources, legal loopholes and straight bribery to
boost its vote.
A statement from Dashnaktsutyun said, `Once again, the identification
of the ruling party with the state, the never-ending exploitation of
administrative resources, and electoral bribery proved effective. The
monopoly on power has been further strengthened.'
Levon Zurabyan, deputy head of the Armenian National Congress,
suggested that his party had been deliberately robbed of votes in a
fraudulent process because the Republicans `are very well aware who
they need to be afraid of'.
`The Republican Party had offices in almost every courtyard, and these
were used for intimidation in the broadest sense,' he said. `They know
the local electorate very well. They know who will vote in exchange
for a bribe, or who they need to threaten with the machinery of
state.'
The Heritage party, which was part of the Hello Yerevan coalition,
might have expected to do better after its leader Raffi Hovhannisyan
did unexpectedly well in the presidential election February. (See
Armenia: Presidential Challenger Rejects Poll Result.)
Heritage's deputy leader Armen Martirosyan joined in the opposition
criticism of the Republicans.
`It's clear these elections were fraudulent. On election day, it would
have been hard to find a single polling station where wasn't a bunch
of criminals outside. The Republican Party used these criminals to
pressure and direct voters and to hand out bribes, while the police
and National Security Service pretended not to notice,' Martirosyan
said said.
The Republican Party dismissed any suggestion of wrongdoing.
`These elections went well, and the nation placed its trust in us once
again. How could we have fixed the elections when the opposition
parties have more people on the electoral commissions than we do?' the
party's deputy chairman and parliamentary leader Galust Sahakyan
asked.
Observers from the Council of Europe were generally positive about the
Yerevan election, saying that except for a few incidents at polling
stations and a slow and at times apparently chaotic count, the process
was `calm and orderly' and `technically well prepared'.
Local non-government groups mostly disagreed, and ten of them issued a
joint statement condemning the use of bribes, bureaucratic pressure
and hired criminals to obstruct fairness.
Armen Badalyan, an analyst at the Centre for Political Studies,
believes that the political process has reached an impasse. The
Republican Party is unlikely to embark on reforms since it is no
longer under pressure to court voters; and the opposition parties have
failed to make headway in any of three key elections held over the
past year.
`That means we are in a dead-end situation,' Badalyan concluded.
Vahe Harutyunyan is a freelance journalist in Armenia.
http://iwpr.net/report-news/local-polls-deal-further-blow-armenian-opposition
IWPR Caucasus Reporting #687
May 13 2013
Local Polls Deal Further Blow to Armenian Opposition
President's party to control capital, as opposition groups claim
electoral fraud.
By Vahe Harutyunyan - Caucasus
CRS Issue 687
Following victories in presidential and parliamentary elections,
Armenia's ruling party swept to victory in a key local election this
month, posing serious questions about how opposition groups can
recover.
Since the capital Yerevan is home to about 40 per cent of a national
population of 2.9 million people, control of the city council is a
crucial factor in politics.
In the May 5 local elections, the Republican Party increased its
representation in the Yerevan assembly from 35 to 42 of the 65 seats,
meaning that once again it gets to choose the mayor.
Victory in Yerevan further consolidated the Republicans, who won the
May 2012 parliamentary polls and whose leader Serzh Sargsyan was
re-elected as president this February.
Yerevan's current mayor, Taron Margaryan, became mayor in November
2011, and was top of the Republican list of candidates in this
election, despite the scandal over his refusal to identify the origin
of six million US dollars in earnings which he declared ahead of the
polls.
The election left the opposition party Prosperous Armenia party with
the 17 seats it already held on the city council, while a newer
opposition bloc called Hello Yerevan won six seats. Two large
opposition groups, the Armenian National Congress and Dashnaktsutyun,
failed to overcome the six per cent threshold required to gain seats
on the assembly.
Opposition parties cried foul, accusing the Republican Party of using
its access to state resources, legal loopholes and straight bribery to
boost its vote.
A statement from Dashnaktsutyun said, `Once again, the identification
of the ruling party with the state, the never-ending exploitation of
administrative resources, and electoral bribery proved effective. The
monopoly on power has been further strengthened.'
Levon Zurabyan, deputy head of the Armenian National Congress,
suggested that his party had been deliberately robbed of votes in a
fraudulent process because the Republicans `are very well aware who
they need to be afraid of'.
`The Republican Party had offices in almost every courtyard, and these
were used for intimidation in the broadest sense,' he said. `They know
the local electorate very well. They know who will vote in exchange
for a bribe, or who they need to threaten with the machinery of
state.'
The Heritage party, which was part of the Hello Yerevan coalition,
might have expected to do better after its leader Raffi Hovhannisyan
did unexpectedly well in the presidential election February. (See
Armenia: Presidential Challenger Rejects Poll Result.)
Heritage's deputy leader Armen Martirosyan joined in the opposition
criticism of the Republicans.
`It's clear these elections were fraudulent. On election day, it would
have been hard to find a single polling station where wasn't a bunch
of criminals outside. The Republican Party used these criminals to
pressure and direct voters and to hand out bribes, while the police
and National Security Service pretended not to notice,' Martirosyan
said said.
The Republican Party dismissed any suggestion of wrongdoing.
`These elections went well, and the nation placed its trust in us once
again. How could we have fixed the elections when the opposition
parties have more people on the electoral commissions than we do?' the
party's deputy chairman and parliamentary leader Galust Sahakyan
asked.
Observers from the Council of Europe were generally positive about the
Yerevan election, saying that except for a few incidents at polling
stations and a slow and at times apparently chaotic count, the process
was `calm and orderly' and `technically well prepared'.
Local non-government groups mostly disagreed, and ten of them issued a
joint statement condemning the use of bribes, bureaucratic pressure
and hired criminals to obstruct fairness.
Armen Badalyan, an analyst at the Centre for Political Studies,
believes that the political process has reached an impasse. The
Republican Party is unlikely to embark on reforms since it is no
longer under pressure to court voters; and the opposition parties have
failed to make headway in any of three key elections held over the
past year.
`That means we are in a dead-end situation,' Badalyan concluded.
Vahe Harutyunyan is a freelance journalist in Armenia.
http://iwpr.net/report-news/local-polls-deal-further-blow-armenian-opposition