The campaign to win the hearts and minds of potential voters for the parliamentary elections in Armenia, still nine months away, has already heated up in the country's marzes (regions).

In a poor marz like Gegharkunik, the time has come for the candidates to hand out potato seed and other "favors" to show how much they care for those just getting by.

The parties that now make up the ruling coalition in Armenia have started to show their faces after the lull subsequent to the last election.

The Republican Party, Rule of Law and Prosperous Armenia parties are actively stealing voters from one another in a bid to win.

Local headquarters of the Republican Party, that couldn't have cared less about the plight of voters in the past four years, are handing out such small favors. Party activists then make a tour of the homes of the recipients, telling them that they are now party members and must vote in favour of their benefactors.

This was the path that led to Hovhannes Baghdasaryan, a resident of Tretouk village, being enrolled in the ranks of the Rule of Law party. His wife and 19 year-old son were also conscripted.

They have yet to receive any assistance from the party but have received a letter regarding their membership from the party's leader, Artur Baghdasaryan

Hovhannes and his wife are both handicapped. Their son doesn't work. The family gets by on 38,700 AMD worth of disability pensions and benefits.

It turns out that one day, out of the blue, the family was visited by the head of the Vardenis branch of the party. The man told them that they would be enrolled as party members and would have to vote for the Rule of Law candidate.

The couple were even taken to Vardenis as guests to meet with party officials.

"They came and took me and I went along. Should I have joined another party? Did I do anything wrong?" asked the fearful wife. Her husband then calmed her down.

They are both relocated to Armenia in the 1990's. The husband is from the Khanlar region (Azerbaijan) and the wife from Getashen (a village in northern Artsakh now in Azerbaijan)

Hovhannes related to me how he became physically disabled. In 1992, during the Artsakh War, he went to Karavatchar to see what he could loot. He says his economic situation forced him to do so. Along the way, he was detained by Armenian soldiers and taken to a military post. Then wanted to send him to the front but decided that at 55 he was too old. Hovhannes trekked across the mountains to return home. Along the way he suffered frostbite and didn't have the money to get medical treatment.

The old man says the regional authority gave him a wheelchair but it was too unwieldy. That's why he now gets around in the makeshift box he built himself.

At the end of our conversation, he requested that we bring up his case with the appropriate authorities and ask that he be admitted to an old age home.

Until then, the family is anxiously awaiting a knock on the door from someone from the Rule of Law party bearing gifts.

They have waited a month now and still no knock.