A special election to fill the seat in the #1 legislative district will be held on December 2.

Four candidates are in the running but the favourites are Robert Sargsyan (Republican Party) and Stoypa Safaryan (Heritage Party).

The campaign has been shown to violate several points of Armenian’s Electoral Code.

Safaryan has been on the campaign stump, greeting residents in street meetings and giving almost daily interviews to the press. Sargsyan is rarely seen, either meeting with the press or locally with residents.

Safaryan has just one campaign office in the district. Sargsyan has fifty.

This is a violation of the Electoral Code. A candidate cannot have more campaign offices than polling precincts in the district. There are 35 precincts in District #1.

Another glaring violation of Sargsyan’s campaign is that his main office is located in the same building housing the district electoral committee.

Other violations being committed by the Sargsyan campaign include the posting of adverts on buildings and other structures, whereas the law stipulates that such ads must only appear at sites designated by local authorities.

Also, while we spotted fifty Sargsyan campaign billboards, the official number appearing on each is 35.

Taking into account all the campaign’s expenses (rents, wages, advertising, printing, etc), it’s safe to say that Sargsyan has spent at least 6.150,000 AMD – an amount 3.3 million more than declared.