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Electoral districts № 30 and 34

HCA Vanadzor, jointly with Union of Informed Citizens, Goris Press Club, Martuni Women’s Community Council and Armenian Helsinki Committee, carries out observation at 34 polling stations of the electoral district № 30 and 46 polling stations of the electoral district № 34.

These elections are marked with overcrowding near the polling stations, guiding of voters and obstruction of the observers’ work.

The observation of the local elections in Gyumri and Vanadzor identified the violations below:

Guiding of voters by representatives of parties

At polling station 30/58 in Vanadzor, an RPA’s (Republican Party of Armenia) proxy, who is the head of a district municipality, and a PAP’s (‘Prosperous Armenia’ Party) proxy guided the voters. Once the Chairperson of the Commission was informed, those persons were removed.

 At polling station 34/21 in Gyumri, representatives of ‘Balasanyan Alliance’ and ‘Prosperous Armenia’ Party guided the voters by the lists in their hands.

Representatives of ‘Balasanyan Alliance’ also guided the voters at polling stations 34/64 and 34/65. The violations were alerted to the Chairpersons of the Commissions, and in the latter case, a letter was submitted to the Polling Station Electoral Commission.

At polling station 34/13 in Gyumri, the Commission member representing the ARF (Armenian Revolutionary Federation) Party watches who takes part in the voting and makes relevant notes.

The same was done by a proxy at polling station 34/22 and representative of ‘Balasanyan Alliance’ at polling station 34/06. In all the 3 cases, the violations were alerted to the chairpersons of the commissions.

Khachatur Khachatryan, a commission member at polling station 34/10 in Gyumri has some lists.

At polling station 34/06, inaccuracies in the lists were identified; after warning the Chairperson of the Commission, the inaccuracies were removed.

Observers alerted that at polling station 34/07, some Siranush Tadevosyan, who had lists in her hands, entered the polling station with false documents. Following the intervention of the Chairperson of the Commission, she was removed from the polling station.

Presence of strangers at polling stations

At polling stations 34/56 and 34/16, there were 2 proxies from the same party who also obstructed the work of the observers. At the same polling station, a representative of one of the parties tried to spread propaganda. In both cases, once the Chairperson of the Commission was informed, the violation was stopped.

The violation was stopped also at polling station 34/48 in the presence of a Council of Elders candidate.

At polling station 34/59, there were strangers as well.

At polling station 30/58, 2 proxies of the RPA forced to register them; once the violation was alerted, it was stopped.

Overcrowding, transporting voters

In the yards of polling stations 30/25 and 30/51 in Vanadzor, some overcrowding was observed. In the former case, the problem was solved, and in the latter case it was reported with a requirement to carry out enhanced rapid-response control to prevent and detect such cases.

At polling station 34/78, the voting of the beneficiaries of the retirement home in Gyumri was held in the vehicle that transported them. A mobile response group was sent out.

At polling station 34/79, an authorized representative of a party was present at the polling station. The Chairperson of the Commission was warned about it, but the issue remained unresolved. Some hours after rapid response groups and a relevant letter were sent, the issue was resolved.

Other violations of voting procedure

At polling station 30/01, a voter voted instead of another one.

At polling station 34/21, some food was delivered to the Chairperson of the Commission in a box with a note ‘Balasanyan Alliance’; a relevant letter was prepared.

At polling station 30/16, there was a misunderstanding regarding an envelope; after leaving the polling booth, a voter said that he was not given the envelope.

At polling stations 34/13, 34/22 and 34/65, the proxies wrote out from the voting lists the names of the persons who voted. The violations were stopped through intervention.

At polling station 30/48, there were some problems with envelopes and relevant record was made in the register.

At polling station 30/47, a mass media representative’s mobile phone used to take video at the polling station was broken.

As of 12 pm, 7056 voters took part in voting at 34 polling stations of the electoral district № 30 where we carried out observation.

Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly-Vanadzor

Goris Press Club

Union of Informed Citizens

Armenian Helsinki Committee

Martuni Women’s Community Council