“Punisher will be the country’s president”: whether the candidates complied with Serzh Sargsyan’s warnings not to go beyond the boundaries
15:00, April 25, 2017 | News, Other news
Still before the parliamentary elections “Zhoghovurd” Daily informed that Serzh Sargsyan had warned the candidates of parties on the national rating lists not to go beyond the bounds by trying to steal the votes of their team member. Ex-chairman of the RA SRC Hovhannes Hovsepyan was appointed to oversee that process. The latter was to oversee their candidates on the rating list to have a clear insight after the elections as to who was able to provide a certain amount of votes for the party.
In a talk with “Zhoghovurd” Daily Hovsepyan noted that he was confident of his strength and he would succeed in overseeing the whole process and moreover, he warned everyone not to even think of undertaking such moves. But lo and behold, cases of vote stealing have been repeatedly voiced after the elections even by the members of the RPA. What vote stealing is meant, who dared to think of taking such steps despite the warnings? Hovhannes Hovsepyan is the interlocutor of “Zhoghovurd” Daily.
-Mr. Hovsepyan, you were to oversee the process of elections and prevent that any of your candidates stole the votes of the team member. Do you think you managed to adequately implement your function?
-Completely.
– In the talk with us before the elections you stated that you still needed to think what mechanisms to apply. How did you monitor?
-Observers accredited to carry out observation mission were deployed in over 2000 polling stations, who implemented all that very independently, self-confidently and courageously.
-Were there observers appointed by you?
-there were observers from independent organizations who I saw for the first time.
– You are assuring that you have managed to completely oversee the whole process, whereas, numerous candidates, including those from the RPA, declared that their votes had been stolen…
– Nothing of the kind. Now the ones who haven’t collected their votes can say anything, I have not recorded any such case anywhere, such a thing did not occur.
– But there were individuals from your party candidates that have expressed such concerns.
– There is nothing of the kind. The huge group of observers over 30 people that worked with me, they are people of quite another field with different mentality and logic; in terms of their mentality they are more criticizing. The next day they tell me they have witnessed everything that happened, they say now let someone dare to say anything; we are sure we got the first information, since they were the source of first information.
– Mr. Hovsepyan, unlike your observers/although it is incomprehensible what observers that worked with you means/ international observers have a different opinion, how do you explain this?
– Well, what should I do now? Tell me and I will. I trust my team, my folks, those who courageously did all that, do you think now I should care for what is said and who says it? I will tell you more, those people were absolutely independent, do you understand that?
– Did you observe only through observers?
– A five-level oversight mechanism was applied.
– Will you specify?
– There were observers, there were foremen were with them, the latter had their coordinators, the coordinators had another team with them comprised of professional experts, who were independent, after that it was me, where we online observed any regime with highest level last generation equipments.
– Have you detected any drawbacks and have you issued warnings?
– There were some small deficiencies.
– Which candidates have you warned?
– I cannot recall, but it was not done by any candidate, maybe someone’s ID was torn, I don’t know, things that were not done by specifically someone, for instance, there was a power cut.
– Or any attempts of vote stealing?
– Nothing of the kind.
– Would you punish in case of such incident?
-Yes.
– How?
– The punisher would be the country’s president; he knew how to do it.
– Didn’t he share with you what punitive actions he was to implement?
– I don’t know, but I know that bad ones.
– Is Serzh Sargsyan pleased with the work you did?
– I cannot answer that question.
– Didn’t you hold a discussion to sum up the elections?
– The president is pleased with all his team.
– Is it possible in the future to get a promotion as compensation for your work?
-I don’t see myself anywhere, I cannot answer that question.
-Was there such a discussion?
-No.