At today’s cabinet session of the Armenian government, PM Tigran Sargsyan queried Education and Science Minister Armen Ashotyan regarding allegations that certain public school principals had taken it upon themselves to suspend classes and send pupils to attend campaign rallies for the incumbent president Serzh Sargsyan.

PM Sargsyan reminded Ashotyan that he had been instructed to make sure such incidents did not occur and asked what steps had the minister taken.

Ashotyan told PM Sargsyan that certain schools had been registered as campaign locales for all the candidates and reminded him that there was no law on the books forbidding pupils to attend campaign rallies after school hours.

Ashotyan said the evidence shows that pupils and parents have been attending to rallies of all the candidates and not only those of President Sargsyan.

PM Sargsyan reiterated that education sector officials will be severely punished if they violate the laws regarding election campaigning and that the government will continue to monitor the situation.