The defense team of Arsen Gevorgyan, the Strong Armenia party’s candidate for mayor of Stepanavan, has issued a statement describing law enforcement actions as “unlawful interference in the electoral process.”
The lawyers argued that it is “at the very least illogical for representatives of the same political force to offer one another electoral bribes.”
“On October 21, Armenia’s Anti-Corruption Committee initiated public criminal prosecution against Arsen Gevorgyan, who heads the Strong Armenia party’s proportional electoral list in the Stepanavan municipal council elections, and 13 other individuals, grossly violating and disregarding the principle of the presumption of innocence.
“Although representatives of the ruling political force and media outlets supporting them are competing to convince the public that the circulated video shows instances of giving and receiving electoral bribes, we declare that this is a classic example of political persecution. The events and sums of money shown in the same published video have no connection to the criminal offense of giving or receiving electoral bribes.
“At the same time, every effort is being made to present an entirely different reality to the public. Respecting the confidentiality of the preliminary investigation, we can only clarify that these funds were, in fact, intended to cover certain election campaign expenses which, under the constitutional law Electoral Code of the Republic of Armenia, are not paid from the election campaign fund,” the statement reads.
The lawyers emphasized that a key circumstance undermining the allegations of vote-buying is that the money was transferred essentially between representatives of the same political force, a fact they say is also being withheld from the public.
“In many cases, these individuals are candidates for municipal council seats on the Strong Armenia party’s proportional electoral list in the Stepanavan municipal council elections.
“It is, at the very least, illogical for representatives of the same political force to offer one another electoral bribes. It is also evident that, by combining all this with repressive detentions and disregarding alternative preventive measures, the political component of the criminal proceedings becomes clear,” the statement says.
Municipal council elections in the enlarged Stepanavan community of Armenia’s Lori region are scheduled for October 25. Voting will take place under a proportional electoral system, with four political forces competing. The electoral list of the Businessman party is headed by Stepanavan’s incumbent mayor, Armen Grigoryan, while the Civil Contract party’s list is led by Arayik Nersisyan, former head of the enlarged Lori Berd community.
The Strong Armenia party is contesting the elections with a list headed by Arsen Gevorgyan, while the Republic party’s electoral list is led by Artak Aleksanyan.
