On his Facebook page today, Vardan Gevorgyan accused Republican Party election operatives at a Yerevan polling precinct of invalidating ballots cast in favour of Raffi Hovannisian.

Gevorgyan was a member of the local election committee at the 1/4 polling precinct in Avan.

He says that the Republican Party operatives were thrown into a tizzy during the vote count because Hovannisian was beating Sargsyan by a wide margin.

“I was there all day and the voting went without a hitch. It was evident on the faces of the voters that Hovannisian was winning. I got ready for an eventful night.”

That’s when they started to invalidate the ballots cast for Hovannisian.

Gevorgyan says he fought tooth and nail to preserve the opposition candidate’s votes and that the committee chairman was only able to invalidate 80 or so ballots.

He says that had he been able to save those as well Raffi Hovannisian would have beat Serzh Sargsyan by 475 to 418 as opposed to the official count showing Sargsyan beating Hovannisian by 418 to 395.

Gevorgyan says he has always respected Hovannisian as an individual but hasn’t supported him as a politician.

“Nevertheless, citizens of Armenia have elected Raffi as their president. Both you and I must safeguard this choice of the people,” concludes Gevorgyan.