The "Armenia" alliance warns about pressures on the opposition during the pre-election period

Yerevan, June 7, 2021 On the eve of the extraordinary parliamentary elections, pre-election educations are heating up even more. Representatives of the opposition "Armenia" bloc claim that during the campaign, the authorities use administrative resources and law enforcement agencies to apply clear and harsh pressures on opposition activists. The alliance considers these actions as an attempt to hinder the opposition's political activities and pre-election campaigning. The officials of the pre-election headquarters of the Armenia bloc are alerted about the incident that happened the other day, related to Yervand Khachatryan, one of the active representatives of the bloc, who during the campaign was engaged in meetings with citizens, represented the political positions of the "Armenia" bloc, and is also engaged in active pre-election activities with his team. In the conversation with Yervand Khachatryan, we learned that on June 2, when he and his team were distributing pre-election leaflets and posting propaganda posters, police officers approached them and tried to obstruct them. Khachatryan claims that despite his explanation that the propaganda materials were placed in permitted places, the policemen forcibly stopped their activity, and Khachatryan was forced into a car and taken to the police department. According to the opposition figure, he was kept at the police station for about 6 hours, where violence was even used against Khachatryan, without proper legal basis. According to the assessment of the representatives of the alliance, similar cases against Khachatryan and other oppositionists should be considered in the wider context of suppressing opposition activists during the pre-election period. The alliance claims that the actions of law enforcement agencies and the use of administrative resources have prevented the provision of equal conditions in the electoral process. The representatives of the "Armenia" bloc are preparing to present the information they have collected regarding these and other incidents to the international structures, which are actively monitoring the pre-election period as well. In particular, the alliance plans to submit a complaint to the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe, presenting the illegal, biased actions of the authorities and law enforcement officers during the pre-election campaign, which should be a serious alarm for the Council of Europe, as a gross violation of democratic values. Directed by: Serine Ghazaryan