Parliamentary election results for a village in Armenia’s central Aragatsotn province have been annulled because of serious fraud, it emerged on Monday.
Officials in Yerevan said the regional election commission declared the results in Parpi null and void on Friday following a complaint lodged by the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun), a major contender in the April 2 elections.
Dashnaktsutyun alleged systematic violations of the secrecy of the ballot and intimidation of local voters. One of its leaders, Aghvan Vartanian, cried foul over the “chaotic situation” in Parpi and other rural communities of Aragatsotn several hours before the closure of the polls on April 2.
Armenia’s Office of the Prosecutor-General said the local election commission reviewed video of the voting in Parpi and found the allegations substantiated. The law-enforcement agency ordered a criminal investigation into those violations. Nobody was charged or detained as of Monday evening.
The invalidation of the voting in Parpi did not prevent the Central Election Commission (CEC) in Yerevan from approving the final nationwide election results on Sunday. A CEC spokeswoman, Hermine Harutiunian, told RFE/RL’s Armenian service (Azatutyun.am) that the irregularities there could not have affected the overall election outcome. The election in the village will therefore not be rerun, she said.
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