During a wide-ranging press conference held today Tigran Karapetyan, who heads the People's Party, blasted the May 31 municipal elections as "demeaning", saying that there could be no talk of a democratic process having taken place. "They brought in the people. People were not showing up at the polls voluntarily. For the first time, people inside and outside the polling stations were coordinating the exchange. For the first time I saw a ballot box placed inside out so that you could see how people were voting. This occurred at P.S 39. It took a four-hour struggle to have it corrected. I won't even mention the fraud and box stuffing that took place in the Malatya-Sebastia district," Mr Karapetyan stated. The People's Party leader said that the votes he received were as pure as "the tears of saints" and that he was content and proud with the numbers I received. Mr. Karapetyan stated that he launched his campaign with a modest war chest of only 1.8 million drams. Referring to the positive evaluation of the European Council's monitoring group of the May 31 elections, Mr. Karapetyan confessed that he wasn't surprised. "Taking into account that they said that after the election they went to a restaurant and sipped Armenian cognac and that they enjoyed it very much...well, their report doesn’t surprise me. I never thought that the conclusions of only 15 monitors could be considered objective." Mr. Karapetyan also questioned the Central Electoral Commission figures stating that 52% of the eligible electorate voted on May 31. He said the figure was more in the 25-30% range and that this was of great concern to him. "People are disillusioned with the same faces and practices. They aren't going to vote. Rather they have to be taken," he lamented. Mr. Karapetyan presented a list of voting violations that his party had recorded on May 31 but said that he had no plans to take legal action because he already knew that little if anything would be done. He called for the abolition of existing local election committees since they were being misused as moneymaking enterprises. Mr. Karapetyan welcomed the declaration of HAK (opposition-based Armenian National Congress) that it would not take its seats in the newly formed Yerevan Municipal Council. However, he stated that his People's Party could never unite with HAK from a perspective of political principles. He claimed that the People's Party always entered the political fray as an independent entity. "We represent the constructive opposition, a third political force. It would be a betrayal of our principles if we united with someone else, whether on the left or the right. Moreover, I would reject any position offered by the regime. I can't be bought or seduced," Mr. Karapetyan added. Mr. Karapetyan claimed that he had personally appealed to President Sargsyan to proclaim a general amnesty in order to mollify political tensions. He said that President Sargsyan responded that he would do so if the need arose. Mr. Karapetyan told the president that such a need already existed.