The chairman of Armenia’s Central Election Commission (CEC) defended on Friday the conduct of the May 31 municipal elections in Yerevan, saying that reported irregularities were not widespread and serious enough to affect vote results.
Not all opposition members and supporters imprisoned following last year’s Armenian presidential election will likely walk free as a result of a general amnesty initiated by President Serzh Sarkisian, it emerged on Wednesday.
President Serzh Sarkisian formally asked Armenia’s parliament on Tuesday to declare a general amnesty that would affect at least some of the opposition members arrested following last year’s troubled presidential election.
The second most important party in Armenia’s governing coalition said on Tuesday that it is unhappy with the conduct of the May 31 mayoral elections in Yerevan but will not challenge its official results.
The Armenian National Congress (HAK) of former President Levon Ter-Petrosian reaffirmed on Tuesday its readiness to join forces with other opposition forces and in particular, his old rival, the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun).
The chairman of a precinct election commission in Yerevan was arrested on Friday on suspicion of committing fraud in the May 31 mayoral elections.
Leaders of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun) approved on Tuesday the decision by the opposition Armenian National Congress (HAK) to abandon its seats in Yerevan’s new municipal council in protest against the alleged rigging of the weekend mayoral elections.
President Serzh Sarkisian on Monday welcomed the course and official results of the weekend mayoral elections in Yerevan, saying that they marked a “serious step forward” in the elimination of Armenia’s culture of electoral fraud.
The Armenian opposition alleged widespread vote buying and other irregularities on Sunday as voting progressed in Yerevan’s mayoral elections marked by a relatively high voter turnout. The polling was also marred by reported attacks on and intimidation of several journalists. (UPDATED)
State prosecutors in Armenia launched on Friday criminal proceedings against unnamed individuals who they said are forcing witnesses to retract their incriminating testimonies against opposition figures tried for last year’s post-election unrest in Yerevan.
The main opposition Armenian National Congress (HAK) accused the authorities on Thursday of planning to falsify the upcoming mayoral elections with a variety of methods used in past Armenian elections.
Dozens of members of Armenia’s two largest pro-government parties reportedly again brawled in Yerevan late on Monday, heightening political tensions ahead of next week’s municipal elections. (UPDATED)
Three women were injured and hospitalized Monday on the second day of reported attacks in a Yerevan suburb on activists of the main opposition Armenian National Congress (HAK) campaigning for this month’s municipal elections.
The Armenian authorities have refused to renew the residency permit of Zhirayr Sefilian, a Lebanese-born prominent veteran of the Nagorno-Karabakh war bitterly opposed to them, in what could be the first step toward his deportation from the country.
Argishti Kivirian, the editor of a private Armenian news agency, was badly beaten by unknown assailants outside his Yerevan apartment early on Thursday in yet another assault on local journalists. (UPDATED)
Police in Yerevan detained late on Tuesday several bodyguards of two controversial pro-government parliamentarians and impounded some of their cars following a serious violation of traffic rules witnessed by the national police chief, Alik Sargsian.
The main opposition Armenian National Congress (HAK) said on Tuesday that it has asked the Constitutional Court to annul a decision by electoral authorities allowing new residents of Yerevan to vote in the upcoming mayoral elections.
