Varuzhan Hoktanyan: Electoral commissions worked at lightning speed (video)
If we believe that the voter turnout in the April 2 parliamentary elections in Armenia was 60.86 percent, it means electoral commissions worked at lightning speed. This gave rise to doubts among observers because it turns out that there were at least four voters at each polling station in 200 seconds, the executive director of Transparency International Anticorruption Centre told A1+. Varuzhan Hoktanyan conducted two studies during the elections. He was particularly interested in the abuse of administrative resources and electronic monitoring of the elections. Mr Hoktanyan will present his findings in a report at the end of April. During the monitoring the anti-corruption centre revealed many strange things. “We saw that a lot of people lived at the given address. There were many apartments and homes were 10-15 people were registered. We warned the political parties and urged them to check the information, but they were engaged in campaigning and had no time.” Transparency International presents the facts and leaves their study and analysis on the forces participating in the elections. “This is probably a consequence of laziness of the thought. Well, we have what we have, people voted for them and the like… Who will go and check the electoral lists to see whether so many people went to the polls or not? Who will check the recordings to see whether there were cases of open voting or double voting, whether the new devices worked properly or not? I hear that the political forces are holding news conferences and giving their assessment of the elections but they should be checking the voter lists instead." Mr Hoktanyan says the five political forces that failed to pass the electoral threshold had not had a realistic assessment of the situation to have a clear idea of their electorate. “Instead of showing their excitement at the campaign rallies at the number of participants and their cheers, they had better try to understand underlying problems and analyze the situation.” The parties must not only give pledges and meet with voters before elections but they must work for many years and get seriously prepared for the next elections.
