If Zoya Tadevosyan were president
According to member of the Central Electoral Commission Zoya Tadevosyan, electoral fraud and post-election events have turned into the usual for the society and the candidates and the March 20 elections for mayor in Armavir were no exception.
According to Tadevosyan, the scenario is the same for any local self-government body election. "We always see this happen due to the authorities' lack of efforts to hold fair elections. The elections falsified through bribes are followed by beatings," says the CEC member.
Tadevosyan says all incumbent community heads start and end the chain of electoral falsifications since they have all the mechanisms and no matter what measures the other candidates take, they can't do what any authority figure can.
According to Tadevosyan, only through the president's intervention will it be possible to put an end to overtly falsified elections. "If I were president of this country, I would simply declare those elections as invalid and would not allow the participation of people who falsify elections," says Tadevosyan.
Mrs. Tadevosyan says the Central Electoral Commission doesn't play a huge role. "The CEC can only oversee and follow up on the process." Tadevosyan adds that there is no change after the recount because the widespread violations that occur during elections are not seen during the recount.
"There is no big difference after the recount because everything is done through electoral bribes in advance and by including a larger number of voters on additional lists by transferring people from one polling station to the next," says the CEC member.
