“PEOPLE TEND TO LIE BEFORE ELECTIONS”
Support A1+!“I do not rule out that Armenian mass media might formally provide equal footing for the nine candidates during the pre-election campaign. And yet it doesn’t mean that the whole campaign will be devoid of irregularities,” candidate of legal science Hrayr Tovmassian said in reply to A1+.
“We shall rather witness the appliance of administrative levers than large-scale irregularities and election fraud,” he says.
The point is that people do not clearly distinguish between election and vote rigging. “I don’t want to make predictions but today’s general picture testifies that this election will greatly differ from the previous ones with regard to the election outcome and vote tabulation,” Hrayr Tovmassian says.
The voting dynamics has significantly bettered since 1995 when ballot boxes were stolen and broken, people were bribed etc.
Surely, I am discontent with the election quality. I am displeased with candidates’ programmes except for that presented by Vazgen Manukian. They hardly resemble a programme proposed by a presidential candidate.
Hrayr Tovmassian considers the candidates’ promises regarding pensions, high-quality water a joke.
“Can you imagine a member of Kentron Commune Alderman highlighting improvement of Armenian-American relations and opening of Armenian-Turkish frontier in his programme? Candidates need to read the Constitution to know RA presidential candidate’s jurisdictions,” he says.
Tovmassian is surprised at the fact that both the press and adherents of this or that candidate name the first President and the acting authorities “Turks.”
“It is no use labeling each other. This is a real shame for the whole country. The campaign should not be carried out on such a mean level. Let me cite a well-known saying in this respect, “People tend to lie during hunting, after a war and before an election.” Unfortunately, the postulate still works in Armenia,” he said.
