Edgar Vardanyan, an analyst with the Armenian Center for National and International Studies (ACNIS), told reporters that Armenian TV stations are offering biased coverage of the run up to the parliamentary elections because they are monopolized by a few wealthy families.

There’s an uneven playing field, Vardanyan noted, and it’s a deliberate policy of those running the government.

He called on those wishing to live in a free and democratic country to rally around one standard that doesn’t seek to gain power but strives to create the necessary mechanisms to gain such power.

A movement is needed to change the reality on the ground, within the public, so that truly free and fair elections can take place amongst candidates offering substantive and progressive ideas.

Vardanyan said people sharing this ideal should not wait for public attitudes to change, but should start taking steps to change it.

He said that he didn’t agree with the observation that some people are selling their votes for 5,000 AMD.

Even if the opposition offered 10,000 AMD, those who accepted the money still wouldn’t vote for the opposition party who gave it, he argued.

Vardanyan said that people aren’t voting for the money. The money, he argued, was a symbolic sign of a transaction that has already occurred.