“It is partly due to our indifference that we’ve ended up in this situation today. Sure, we face pressures but we cannot be intimidated. The will you exhibit on February 19th can free you and your lack of will can turn you into slaves or victims.”

The above lines are taken from a speech that Vahan Hovhannisyan, the presidential candidate of the ARF-D, made before the elections. Wherever he traveled during the campaign he stated that he would safeguard every ballot cast on his behalf. Let me bring one example to your attention that apparently doesn’t worry the ARF-D in the least and proves beyond any reasonable doubt that this party didn’t work to see its candidate emerge victorious. This despite the fact that tens of thousands of ARF-D supporters entered the election fray with this very objective in mind.

The press in Armenia has already reported on the voting fraud that occurred at the 9/31 polling station in Yerevan. A recount of the ballots cast was undertaken on the basis of the protest filed by the campaign headquarters of presidential candidate Artur Baghdasaryan. The review shows that initially all the ballots cast for all the candidates had been “allocated” to Serzh Sargsyan.

The initial count showed that Sargsyan had garnered 709 votes, but the recount revealed that his true tally was only 395 votes. Vahan Hovhannisyan was shown to have garnered 3 votes but the recount shows he actually won 120. Of these 120 votes, 117 had been “given” to Sargsyan, with Hovhannisyan winding up with only 3. Representatives of the ARF voiced no concern neither at the polling station nor after the fraud had been revealed. What assurances are there that such fraud didn’t take place at all polling stations throughout the country and that votes cast for the ARF-D weren’t funneled to Serzh Sargsyan? Why didn’t the ARF-D at least register a complaint for the sake of formality or maybe they didn’t because party members from the start knew the actual reason for why they were going to the polls? In any event, the fact that the ARF-D accepted the election results so graciously and succumbed without putting up a fight is particularly worrying. In this context, I’m not speaking about whether one should support Levon Ter-Petrosyan or not, but rather about defending the image of the party.

At that same polling station Levon Ter-Petrosyan garnered 376 votes according to the initial tally and 392 after the recount.

Artur Baghdasaryan garnered 134 initially and 184 after the recount.

Vazgen Manukyan first came up with no votes but had actually won 57.

Arman Melikyan initially showed he had no votes but in actuality had 6.

Tigran Karapetyan first showed 11 votes and after the recount, 22.

Artashes Geghamyan first showed 6 votes and afterwards, 7.

Aram Harutyunyan had no votes initially and 1 vote after the recount.

According to the statement released by the Prosecutor General’s Office on Thursday, February 21, Edvard Aghajanyan, the President of the Election Committee at Polling Station 9/31, had been arrested.

As to the question, how were the ballots counted in all the other polling stations? It appears that the tens of thousands of voters assembled at Freedom Square are providing the answer.
P.S. This article was penned before Vahan Hovhannisyan resigned his post as Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly. The ARF-D has still not officially commented on the election results.

P.S. This article was penned before Vahan Hovhannisyan resigned his post as Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly. The ARF-D has still not officially commented on the election results.