An Armenian court on Monday fined a former senior local government official and ten other people after convicting them of buying votes for the former ruling Republican Party of Armenia (HHK) in the 2017 municipal elections in Yerevan.
The criminal case stems from irregularities that were reported by the opposition Yelk alliance on eve of the May 2017 elections won by the HHK and its top candidate, Yerevan’s former Mayor Taron Markarian.
Yelk representatives found scandalous documents in a trash bin outside an HHK campaign office in the city’s Arabkir district. Most of them purportedly detailed vote buying operations by government loyalists, including sums of money and guidelines on how to buy votes.
Armenia’s Special Investigative Service (SIS) launched an inquiry but closed the criminal case in August 2017, citing a lack of evidence.
The SIS launched a fresh probe shortly after one of Yelk’s leaders, Nikol Pashinian, swept to power on a wave of mass protests that brought down Armenia’s HHK-led government in May 2018. It claimed to have found compelling evidence of vote buying in favor of the HHK.
According to the law-enforcement body, the illegal operation was led by Hrayr Antonian, the head of a department at Yerevan’s municipal administration, and Stepan Sahakian, the executive director of a supermarket chain owned by an HHK-linked businessman. Arabkir residents were allegedly paid 10,000 drams ($21) each for pledging to vote for the HHK and Mayor Markarian. The latter resigned under government pressure in July.
The district court imposed the heaviest fines on Antonian and Sahakian. They will have to pay 2.5 million drams ($5,200) each.
Prosecutors demanded 3-year prison sentences for both men. It was not immediately clear whether they will appeal against the court verdict.
Daniel Ioannisian, a prominent civic activist, criticized the verdict as too lenient, saying that the defendants were part of a “criminal gang that aimed to steal power from the people of Yerevan.” “I hope that the prosecutors will appeal against this verdict,” Ioannisian told RFE/RL’s Armenian service.
Vote buying was widespread in just about every major election held in Armenia before last spring’s “velvet revolution.” The HHK, which is headed by former President Serzh Sarkisian, was accused by its opponents and media of heavily relying on the practice in the last parliamentary polls held in April 2017.
There were virtually no reports of vote buying in snap mayoral elections held in Yerevan in September and the December parliamentary elections.
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