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In his interview to GALATV, human rights defender Artur Sakunts, Chairman of Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly – Vanadzor, summed up the December 6 Constitutional Referendum processes in Armenia and particularly touched upon the electoral fraud techniques applied.

According to the human rights defender, a whole bunch of usual frauds was used, but he focused on another peculiarity identified in the voting, “They targeted the electoral commissions and their members, i.e. despite the incidences of bribing and intimidating voters, etc., they mostly targeted bribing and intimidating the electoral commissions and making their members forge the voting results. This was the most striking thing. And I think this was merely due to financial reasons, i.e. spending less financial resources for the results they might get by bribing voters. While there were also some recorded incidences of bribing voters, the bribing practices mostly targeted the electoral commissions”, said the human rights defender.

However, according to Artur Sakunts, to ensure the smooth falsification of voting results, pressure was also exerted on observers and proxies. “Intimidating, threatening and bribing … such practices were also applied against observers, however, selectively, depending on each observer’s personality, resistance and capacities. In these terms, 3 levels can be specified: in precincts with no observers, “yes” votes were most explicit and the turnout of voters was too high; in precincts with weak observers, the voting and turnout rates were average, and as for the precincts with more severe control by observers, citizen’s vote was defended. This voting did not envisage electing any particular person; in fact, it was all about the attitude towards S. Sargsyan’s initiative in the form of the Constitutional Amendments, since that was definitely his initiative, rather than one resulting from political agreement, said A. Sakunts.

According to Sakunts, even given the widespread electoral frauds, intimidation and threats, especially the urban population could express their negative attitudes towards the RA authorities. Yet, our interlocutor also touched upon another essential point: “However, all those citizens are also ready for active steps, and this is why Serzh Sargsyan held an urgent assembly and expressed his official opinion on the voting results stating that the referendum was conducted smoothly before the final official data were announced. He did so out of plain concerns since he could sense the danger. Once the passive citizen ready to take active steps sees a supporting point, a lever as in Archimedes’ law, this situation will definitely see radical changes. This means, that there is willingness and potential for changes and the issue lies in the availability of the conditions necessary to make such changes, i.e. a legitimate supporting point. And I don’t agree with the statements that rural residents were bribed, since we lacked any resources and political forces supporting “no” voting, we lacked the necessary resources to ensure control there,” stated the human rights defender.

As for the precincts with a high turnout of voters, A. Sakunts said he was sure that stuffing occurred or votes were cast on behalf of absent persons in such precincts. “In precincts with turnout of at least 70% and above, stuffing occurred. This is a crime record, let them check it. If the police can check whether votes were cast on behalf of the Avetisyans family members, they can also check my statements. And if they check and find out that no votes were cast on behalf of absent persons, I am ready to assume responsibility for false testimony and go to jail. And if they fail to check it, as it was with the incident of the Avetisyans, they would prove that such frauds really occurred and it was the inaction by the law enforcement agencies that led to concealing a crime,” he concluded.

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