Opposition claims violations at elections in Nagorno-Karabakh

Oppositionists reported that they had registered a lot of violations in the course of the elections held in Nagorno-Karabakh. The number of the detected violations includes voters taking photos of ballots and not allowing opposition-minded contract soldiers to vote.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that today, the voting has taken place at the presidential and parliamentary elections in Nagorno-Karabakh.

A lot of violations were committed during the voting; however, election commissions did not register most of those violations, the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was told by Arthur Osipyan, the chairman of the Artsakh (self-proclaimed name of Nagorno-Karabakh, ‑ note of the "Caucasian Knot") "Revolutionary Party". According to Arthur Osipyan, voters especially often took pictures of their ballots on mobile phones.

On his Facebook page, Arthur Osipyan suggested that people who voted for Araik Arutyunyan (former state minister Araik Arutyunyan was nominated from the block of parties "Free Homeland-United Civil Block", ‑ note of the "Caucasian Knot") and his party, took pictures of their ballots, because they were promised rewards.

According to Arthur Osipyan, he also appealed to David Tonoyan, Minister of Defence of Armenia, with a request urging the military official to find out why commanders of the Karabakh army did not allow contract soldiers to participate in the elections. "In one of the military units, commanders wilfully sent contract soldiers to the front line to stay on duty at military posts, because the commanders knew that the soldiers supported the opposition forces. Now those military men are not allowed to come to polling stations and vote. The commanders argue that they allegedly have no replacement," noted Arthur Osipyan.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on March 31, 2020 at 06:55 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.