Armenia’s Investigative Committee claimed that they illegally “directed a number of persons” to vote for the opposition Victory alliance during a local election held last November. The law-enforcement agency released wiretaps of phone calls which it said prove that the suspects urged other local residents not to vote for the ruling Civil Contract party and offered to transport them to polling stations.
The committee also claimed to have found unspecified “documents relevant to the criminal proceedings” during searches conducted in the suspects’ homes. It did not elaborate
The Victory leader, Sevak Khachatrian, denounced the arrests as “political persecution” and linked them to Armenia’s parliamentary elections scheduled for June 7. While questioning the authenticity of the wiretapped conversations, Khachatrian insisted that they do not expose any illegal practices. He said his supporters could have only been engaged in election-related “organizational work” not prohibited by Armenian law.
“They did not commit any crimes,” Khachatrian told reporters outside an Investigative Committee building in Yerevan where the detainees were held at that point.
Garnik Danielian, an opposition parliamentarian who visited two of the arrested suspects, argued that they did not do anything against local voters’ will.
“I also call on people not to vote for the ruling party,” said Danielian. “I have done that so many times. Why don’t them arrest me too.”
Armenia - Sevak Khachatrian speaks to journalists in Vagharshapat.
Several members of the Victory alliance were already rounded up in the wake of the Vagharshapat election narrowly won by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s party. They were charged by the Anti-Corruption Committee (ACC) with vote buying but set free pending investigation. They all deny the accusations.
In late December, the ACC also arrested eight members and supporters of the opposition Fatherland party that also ran in the local polls. It claimed that they too tried to buy votes. The suspects, including the party’s Yerevan-based secretary general, Khachik Galstian, deny the charges.
Unlike Victory, Fatherland failed to win any seats in the local council of a district comprising Vagharshapat and 17 nearby villages. The party is led by Artur Vanetsian, a former head of Armenia’s National Security Service.
According to the official election results, Civil Contract won the November ballot with over 48 percent of the vote, giving it an absolute majority in the council empowered to appoint the district chief. Throughout the election campaign opposition groups and vote monitors accused the ruling party of abusing its government levers for electoral purposes.
In particular, the vote-monitoring group Akanates seized upon the fact that Pashinian’s government spent in September and October an additional 500 million drams ($1.3 million) on infrastructure upgrades in the community. It said the urgent funding was clearly aimed at illegally influencing the election outcome. Ruling party figures denied that.