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One Night of Election Torment
Ararat Davtyan
http://hetq.am/eng/articles/23621/one-night-of-election-torment.html
17:00, February 20, 2013
Contrasting impressions
Artashat, polling station 17/2, school #2, 1:10 a.m.: OSCE/ODIHR
observers Aaron Johanson and Eckhart Rodhen come inside. Five and a
halfhoursprior I met them in the neighboring 17/5 polling station.
Observers Artak and Narine were alarmed bythe ballot stuffing there,
but the OSCE/ODIHR observers told them they wouldprobably not be there
forthe ballot counting. So I was very happy to know that Johanson and
Rodhen would be present.
It was around 8:00 p.m. Along with Hetqcameraman Hakob Poghosyan I
went inside the 17/2 polling station and the doors were locked
immediately after we went inside. After midnightsome local observers
came too, but the doors weren't opened. Then came Johanson and Rodhen,
the "international" observers, leaving all doorsclosed behind them.
Rodhen and Johanson
`We heard that the ballot counting stopped,' said their translator.
`We are finished now and already signed the envelopes. Who told you
that?' said the Republican Electoral Commission chairmanHrach
Hovhannisyan querulously.
`Yeah [or Aaa]... Good, they're done,' one of the international
observers said to the other.
I don't want to step over the limit and repeat what I was feeling at
that moment in their presence. They didn't ask anything of us, neither
from any member of the commission nor the observers present. They were
just enjoying jokes by Gegham Mirzoyan, who's Serzh Sargsyan's proxy.
Smile, laugh and compliment; the tense atmosphere in the long corridor
of the school momentsbeforehad completely disappeared. A few minutes
later we left, leaving a big, still opened ballot bag full of
envelopes in the precinct and taking an official document of
distribution of votes with us: Serzh Sargsyan - 1,411, Raffi
Hovannisian - 287, Hrant Bagratyan - 13...
Republican Party commission members and Serzh Sargsyan's proxies
Officiallypresent in the 17/2 polling station were proxies
representing the Armenian National Congress (HAK), Heritage Party,
Prosperous Armenia Party, Electoral Commission representatives, and
proxies of presidential candidates Raffi Hovannisianand Hrant
Bagratyan. But Mirzoyan was coordinating everyone and everything,
including theundertakingsof Hovhannisyan, the commission chairman.
Hrach Hovhannisyan Gegham Mirzoyan
Meanwhile the `Rights of Europe' union observer Narek Babayan tried to
do his job andtalked about violations.He was threatened and insulted
by Mirzoyan, someone named Armen (as I understand, Mirzoyan's son),
Armen's friends and the chairman of the commission.
Basically, almost everyone in the precinct was watching Narek closely.
There were 10 people therewho weren't asked to leave by the commission
chairman, although Narek announced that nonessential individuals had
no right to be in the polling station. Instead, the chairmanasked the
police, standing silently nearby, to remove Narek as he interrupted
their work. But fortunately, the police didn't do anything, as always.
However, per Sargsyan's proxy's demand, they removed a group of
observers who had come urgently and were gathered near the window of
the school corridor.
`Ruined' ballot counting
The first thing that attracted our attention during the ballot
counting was the perfectly stacked ballots taken from the box.
Everyone of themwas a vote for Serzh Sargsyan. There were about 10 to
11 similar bundles. When randomly arranged ballots were taken from the
ballot box, the majority of the votes were for Raffi Hovannisian.
Sargsyan was undisputedly leading; you could clearly see that his
votes were one-third more that Raffi Hovannisian's, and stacks of
ballots were continuously taken from the ballot box. Narek went out
for a smoke; I was doing the same on the other side of the corridor
and Hakob the cameraman was videotaping the ballot counting.He told me
that something happened: some people intentionally stood in front of
him, blocking the view of his camera. It seemed that Hovannisian's
ballots decreased significantly during those moments.
Nonessential individuals in the polling station
Hakob's guess wasn't baseless: Hovannisian's ballots were less than
they had been five minutes prior. But we were calm; Hakob was
shooting, and we were surethat the footage would clarify
whetherHovannisian ballots really decreased
Recalling Narek's stories about possible ballot stuffing in the 17/2
polling station, I first thought that in order to "balance" the vote
they decreased Hovannisian's ballot count bystuffing. Later I noticed
that Sargsyan's ballots significantly increased. Anyway, Hakob and I
were waiting for the counting to end.
However, during that time Mirzoyan became more active. He invited
Hakob and I to the neighboring room to drink some brandy, joking and
offering to exchange phone numbers, assuring us that he was a good,
supportive friend and, despite everything, he would like us to hang
out `like brothers'the following day.
The counting was well underway. Narek was standing behind two people
sitting beside one other and counting, and was silently watching the
process. Suddenly, he announced that at least 3, even 10 ballots
counted by the woman sitting in front of him weren't for Sargsyan.But
instead of stopping, the woman continued to count them as Sargsyan's
ballots.
Hasmik Lazarian Narek Babayan
Then commission chairman Hovhannisyan started to yell and requested
that the counting stop for one hour. He started to scold Narek for
making the woman, who was the same age of his mother, cry.
`If her son was here right now he would kill you,' he told Narek.
The woman who was counting--the representative of Electoral Commission
Hasmik Lazarian--wasn't actually crying. In her conversation with us
she mentioned that she had been there since morning, and being tired
she perhaps didn't notice a thing or two, and there had been no need
to offend her. Apparently, Lazarian felt offended because Narek was
suspicious of her counting.
There was a group of people on the other side of the corridor.
Mirzoyan and Hovhannisyan tried persuading her to continue counting
but she refused, requesting that someone else step in. "I have a grown
daughter, I feel embarrassed." Then she told me, "I don't know what
would happen to me if Narek offends me once more."
They started counting again. Narek, standing in the same place, was
watching them, but Lazarian sat in another spot around the table.
Then I decided to watch. She was counting Sargsyan's votes by raising
the bottom-left edge of the ballots (maybe intentionally, I don't
know).
Sargsyan's name was second-to-laston the ballot, and I noticed that on
those counted ballots the last three boxes were empty. I looked up,
and at that moment the commission chairman, who was staring directly
into my eyes, said friendlily that if I had any comments I should
express them. I showed one of the ballots to everyone, saying that it
was cast for Raffi Hovannisian, who was listed under number 3.
`Who is that?' one bold man yelled, pointing at me.
`That's Arayik, chairman of the 17/3 polling station,"Mirzoyan said.
I took a bunch of ballots, pushed them forward and said that it seemed
all of themwere votes for Raffi.
Nonessential individuals in the polling station 17/2
Then Mirzoyan started to shout at me, asking what did I have to do
with ballots, being a journalist. Then he turned to Narek and said,
"This is all your fault, rat."
Later he started to threaten that he would lose his control and would
start to use bad words, like "idiot," `punk' and others. The
commission chairman "reminded" Narek that he wasn't a man, and that
patriotism wasn't demonstrated in such a way.
I can't even remember how allthat noise stopped. Mirzoyan advised
Hovhannisyanthathebring it to an end. He generously added 3 (the ones
that Narek noticed) votes to Raffi Hovannisian's 284, then added up
the number of ballots cast for other candidates along with void and
empty ballots. Then he deducted that number from the entire total and
tallied that number for Serzh Sargsyan. That's how it turned out.
Photos: Hakob Poghosyan
Video: Hakob Poghosyan and Narek Babayan
Ararat Davtyan
http://hetq.am/eng/articles/23621/one-night-of-election-torment.html
17:00, February 20, 2013
Contrasting impressions
Artashat, polling station 17/2, school #2, 1:10 a.m.: OSCE/ODIHR
observers Aaron Johanson and Eckhart Rodhen come inside. Five and a
halfhoursprior I met them in the neighboring 17/5 polling station.
Observers Artak and Narine were alarmed bythe ballot stuffing there,
but the OSCE/ODIHR observers told them they wouldprobably not be there
forthe ballot counting. So I was very happy to know that Johanson and
Rodhen would be present.
It was around 8:00 p.m. Along with Hetqcameraman Hakob Poghosyan I
went inside the 17/2 polling station and the doors were locked
immediately after we went inside. After midnightsome local observers
came too, but the doors weren't opened. Then came Johanson and Rodhen,
the "international" observers, leaving all doorsclosed behind them.
Rodhen and Johanson
`We heard that the ballot counting stopped,' said their translator.
`We are finished now and already signed the envelopes. Who told you
that?' said the Republican Electoral Commission chairmanHrach
Hovhannisyan querulously.
`Yeah [or Aaa]... Good, they're done,' one of the international
observers said to the other.
I don't want to step over the limit and repeat what I was feeling at
that moment in their presence. They didn't ask anything of us, neither
from any member of the commission nor the observers present. They were
just enjoying jokes by Gegham Mirzoyan, who's Serzh Sargsyan's proxy.
Smile, laugh and compliment; the tense atmosphere in the long corridor
of the school momentsbeforehad completely disappeared. A few minutes
later we left, leaving a big, still opened ballot bag full of
envelopes in the precinct and taking an official document of
distribution of votes with us: Serzh Sargsyan - 1,411, Raffi
Hovannisian - 287, Hrant Bagratyan - 13...
Republican Party commission members and Serzh Sargsyan's proxies
Officiallypresent in the 17/2 polling station were proxies
representing the Armenian National Congress (HAK), Heritage Party,
Prosperous Armenia Party, Electoral Commission representatives, and
proxies of presidential candidates Raffi Hovannisianand Hrant
Bagratyan. But Mirzoyan was coordinating everyone and everything,
including theundertakingsof Hovhannisyan, the commission chairman.
Hrach Hovhannisyan Gegham Mirzoyan
Meanwhile the `Rights of Europe' union observer Narek Babayan tried to
do his job andtalked about violations.He was threatened and insulted
by Mirzoyan, someone named Armen (as I understand, Mirzoyan's son),
Armen's friends and the chairman of the commission.
Basically, almost everyone in the precinct was watching Narek closely.
There were 10 people therewho weren't asked to leave by the commission
chairman, although Narek announced that nonessential individuals had
no right to be in the polling station. Instead, the chairmanasked the
police, standing silently nearby, to remove Narek as he interrupted
their work. But fortunately, the police didn't do anything, as always.
However, per Sargsyan's proxy's demand, they removed a group of
observers who had come urgently and were gathered near the window of
the school corridor.
`Ruined' ballot counting
The first thing that attracted our attention during the ballot
counting was the perfectly stacked ballots taken from the box.
Everyone of themwas a vote for Serzh Sargsyan. There were about 10 to
11 similar bundles. When randomly arranged ballots were taken from the
ballot box, the majority of the votes were for Raffi Hovannisian.
Sargsyan was undisputedly leading; you could clearly see that his
votes were one-third more that Raffi Hovannisian's, and stacks of
ballots were continuously taken from the ballot box. Narek went out
for a smoke; I was doing the same on the other side of the corridor
and Hakob the cameraman was videotaping the ballot counting.He told me
that something happened: some people intentionally stood in front of
him, blocking the view of his camera. It seemed that Hovannisian's
ballots decreased significantly during those moments.
Nonessential individuals in the polling station
Hakob's guess wasn't baseless: Hovannisian's ballots were less than
they had been five minutes prior. But we were calm; Hakob was
shooting, and we were surethat the footage would clarify
whetherHovannisian ballots really decreased
Recalling Narek's stories about possible ballot stuffing in the 17/2
polling station, I first thought that in order to "balance" the vote
they decreased Hovannisian's ballot count bystuffing. Later I noticed
that Sargsyan's ballots significantly increased. Anyway, Hakob and I
were waiting for the counting to end.
However, during that time Mirzoyan became more active. He invited
Hakob and I to the neighboring room to drink some brandy, joking and
offering to exchange phone numbers, assuring us that he was a good,
supportive friend and, despite everything, he would like us to hang
out `like brothers'the following day.
The counting was well underway. Narek was standing behind two people
sitting beside one other and counting, and was silently watching the
process. Suddenly, he announced that at least 3, even 10 ballots
counted by the woman sitting in front of him weren't for Sargsyan.But
instead of stopping, the woman continued to count them as Sargsyan's
ballots.
Hasmik Lazarian Narek Babayan
Then commission chairman Hovhannisyan started to yell and requested
that the counting stop for one hour. He started to scold Narek for
making the woman, who was the same age of his mother, cry.
`If her son was here right now he would kill you,' he told Narek.
The woman who was counting--the representative of Electoral Commission
Hasmik Lazarian--wasn't actually crying. In her conversation with us
she mentioned that she had been there since morning, and being tired
she perhaps didn't notice a thing or two, and there had been no need
to offend her. Apparently, Lazarian felt offended because Narek was
suspicious of her counting.
There was a group of people on the other side of the corridor.
Mirzoyan and Hovhannisyan tried persuading her to continue counting
but she refused, requesting that someone else step in. "I have a grown
daughter, I feel embarrassed." Then she told me, "I don't know what
would happen to me if Narek offends me once more."
They started counting again. Narek, standing in the same place, was
watching them, but Lazarian sat in another spot around the table.
Then I decided to watch. She was counting Sargsyan's votes by raising
the bottom-left edge of the ballots (maybe intentionally, I don't
know).
Sargsyan's name was second-to-laston the ballot, and I noticed that on
those counted ballots the last three boxes were empty. I looked up,
and at that moment the commission chairman, who was staring directly
into my eyes, said friendlily that if I had any comments I should
express them. I showed one of the ballots to everyone, saying that it
was cast for Raffi Hovannisian, who was listed under number 3.
`Who is that?' one bold man yelled, pointing at me.
`That's Arayik, chairman of the 17/3 polling station,"Mirzoyan said.
I took a bunch of ballots, pushed them forward and said that it seemed
all of themwere votes for Raffi.
Nonessential individuals in the polling station 17/2
Then Mirzoyan started to shout at me, asking what did I have to do
with ballots, being a journalist. Then he turned to Narek and said,
"This is all your fault, rat."
Later he started to threaten that he would lose his control and would
start to use bad words, like "idiot," `punk' and others. The
commission chairman "reminded" Narek that he wasn't a man, and that
patriotism wasn't demonstrated in such a way.
I can't even remember how allthat noise stopped. Mirzoyan advised
Hovhannisyanthathebring it to an end. He generously added 3 (the ones
that Narek noticed) votes to Raffi Hovannisian's 284, then added up
the number of ballots cast for other candidates along with void and
empty ballots. Then he deducted that number from the entire total and
tallied that number for Serzh Sargsyan. That's how it turned out.
Photos: Hakob Poghosyan
Video: Hakob Poghosyan and Narek Babayan