In an extensive investigative report released late last month, the Union of Informed Citizens (UIC) said that the administration of a local community comprising the town of Spitak and surrounding villages is drawing up lists of its Yerevan-based natives promising to vote for Civil Contract and its mayoral candidate, Tigran Avinian, in the September 17 vote. It said the process is overseen by Gevorg Papoyan, the ruling party’s deputy chairman.
The allegations are based on recorded phone calls between local officials and an UIC activist posing as an aide to Papoyan. The audio of those conversations was posted on the group’s fact-checking website.
Spitak’s deputy mayor, Hovik Hovannisian, and six village chiefs can be heard saying that they already have or will soon have such lists. In Hovannisian’s words, Spitak officials explain to such voters “just how bad thing will be for them” if Civil Contract loses the polls.
Papoyan rejected the UIC report as slanderous and said he will sue the Western-funded organization. He said at the same time that the Spitak officials are affiliated with Pashinian’s party and have a right to campaign for its election victory.
The UIC leader, Daniel Ioannisian, countered that the officials admitted ordering their subordinates to participate in that campaign.
Armenia’s Office of the Prosecutor-General last week pledged to look into the UIC report. But it has still not opened a criminal case.
The Central Election Commission (CEC) also seems unlikely to investigate the alleged foul play. The CEC chairman, Vahagn Hovakimian, said it could do so only if it receives a formal complaint.
“In my personal view, that audio does not testify to an abuse of administrative resources,” Hovakimian told reporters on Thursday. “Your or any other citizen’s idea of abuse of administrative resources is one thing and the law another.”
A longtime collaborator of Pashinian, Hovakimian was affiliated with Civil Contract until being controversially installed last October as head of the body organizing all elections in Armenia. Opposition and civic groups denounced Pashinian’s choice of the new CEC chairman.
In a joint statement issued ahead of Hovakimian’s appointment, 17 Armenian nongovernmental organizations said that he is a partisan figure who cannot guarantee the CEC’s “independence and political impartiality.” Hovakimian insisted that in his new capacity he will not be influenced by his long-standing ties with Pashinian.