Hmayak Hovhannisyan, President of the Political Analysts Union, who pulled out of today’s parliamentary by-election in favour of Nikol Pashinyan, told "Hetq" that the ruling regime had taken measures to ensure that today’s voter turnout would be the lowest possible. He argued that this would allow them to rig the election in their favour. "They coerced people to promise that they wouldn’t go to the polls. This way they could use the empty ballots to cast votes for their guy. They have lists of those who promised don’t to show up. This just goes to prove that Resolution 4 of the European Council hasn’t made a difference," stated Mr. Hovhannisyan. He went on to say that there was no media coverage of the January 8 public meeting in support of Pashinyan’s candidacy and argued that the heavy police presence on both sides of Pashinyan’s supporters was a warning to people not to vote. Mr. Hovhannisyan said his campaign staff was following developments and that what has so far taken place today reflects poorly on participatory politics in Armenia. "Just look at what happened to Petros Makeyan. He was beaten and is now in hospital. People are turned off by such incidents are would rather stay home and not venture out to vote." He also claimed that he had information according to which certain voters had been summoned by police and told not to cast their votes or to vote for Ara Simonyan, candidate of the National Unity Party, the favourite choice of the ruling regime.