Marine Martirosyan
Hrant Galstyan

Armenia’s Investigative Committee has written to Hetq saying that it has rejected launching a criminal case based on a Hetq article in which Samvel Boyakhchyan, a HAK (Armenian National Congress) member serving on a local election committee in Kasakh, claimed that he was offered a bribe before the December 6 constitutional referendum.

In the Hetq article, published the same day as the referendum, Boyakhchyan said that the bribe was offered in return from his turning a blind eye to voting violations or for him to just report in sick and not even show up at the 26/27 polling station in Kasakh.

The Investigative Committee argued that it found no proof that a crime had been committed.

On December 6, Boyakhchyan told Hetq that during the referendum he spotted several instances of duplicate voting.