Police are patrolling the streets of Arshalouys in the run-up to the February 12 election for village mayor. The cops are out to prevent fist fights amongst supporters of the two rival candidates.

One is Zarzand Grigoryan, the current mayor, of the ruling Republican Party. The other is Grigor Grigoryan, a former mayor, of the same party.

Zarzand Grigoryan is running an active campaign. His rival has no campaign team and we found him at home when we visited.

Grigor G. Complains that Zarzand and his brother, MP Hrant Grigoryan, have installed an atmosphere of intimidation and fear in the village. People are afraid to walk the streets, he claims.

Grigor claims that people are being stopped on the streets and are asked who they support.

Grigor brushes aside charges that during his tenure, nothing was done for the village. “I was mayor for 18 years in those terrible conditions. We received no state assistance till 2005. The village budget was only 8-10 million AMD, just enough for salaries. Today, the budget is 50-60 million. But they have nothing to show for all that money.”

Grigor also charges the current mayor’s campaign with handing out favours – wood to the poor and those with large families.

“He’s threatened school staff with dismissal if they don’t vote the right way. He’s also replacing good water pipes with new ones with state assistance. But 70% of the village has no water supply. He’s probably holding on to the pipes to sell off,” charges Grigor Grigoryan.

Grigor G. Says that if elected he will wipe out the villagers’ debts for 200-2005.

The former mayor also charges the mayor with instructing the hospital emergency unit with contacting him first before answering the call. He says that if the caller isn’t a supporter of his, the mayor will not allow them to visit the sick person.

Yelena Karamanyan, who heads the emergency unit, denies the charge. So does Andranik Tevanyan, the ambulance driver.

We also met with Mayor Zarand Grigoryan and his MP brother Hrant.

Hrant dismissed the charges being levelled against his brother and said that the opposing side needs to provide evidence or shut-up.

“The former mayor milked these villagers dry to the bone. It’s only due to our goodwill that he isn’t behind bars today.”

In fact, the former mayor had been brought up on criminal charges for official abuse of power and was sentence to 6.5 years in 2010. He only spent 4 months in jail. A deal was cut, ordering the former mayor to pay 2 million every month to pay back the 69.2 million in damages to the community.

MP Hrant Grigoryan says that the former mayor has only paid back 2 million and has claimed bankruptcy.

Hrant Grigoryan says that police were called into the village to maintain law and order, not to intimidate voters. He also denied charges that his brother has sold of any municipal water pipes.

He’s also irate that his brother’s detractors fail to mention the good works he’d done, like purchase a $7,000 bus and that for the past 3 years some to students travel back and forth to Yerevan for free.

Walking through the village, we tried to get residents to express their opinions on the two candidates. There were no takers. They appeared apprehensive about expressing themselves on the matter.