4/15 polling station of Arabkir community

In 4/15 polling station of Arabkir community
which is situated in the school named after Vardges Petrosyan, the queues of
voters gathered outside the polling station. In that polling station 1967
voters were registered plus 6 by additional list.

The camera of henaran.am noticed two persons in
a polling-booth and heard the woman “supporting” the voting citizen call the
name of “Prosperous Armenia” party.

The members of commission did not pay attention
to that fact and only after the observation of our reporter, the Chairman of
the commission approached and asked why there were two persons in the
polling-booth.

The members of the commission said the voter
needed help. By the way the voter was taking part in the voting for the 9^th
time. As another observation, the observers at the polling station were
interfering in our work trying to justify the recorded fact.

After the voting, we tried to find out whether
the voter had a eyesight or mobility problem, and the citizen gave a negative
answer and said he was taking part in the elections for the first time and he
was just guided on how to vote.

Laywer Lida Hakobyan considers this fact as
gross violation of electoral right. According to the lawyer, even if citizens
do not know how to fill in the ballot, they should apply to the Chairman of the
Commission. The citizen in need can be helped by
a person who is not a proxy or electoral commission member.

The lawyer mentioned that
the law obliges to register the data on a person who delivered assistance to a
voter who needed it in the registry, and that was not done. The Chairman of Commission,
Serob Stepanyan, member of Prosperous Armenia political party, explained that
he was busy and was not aware that two citizens entered the polling-booth together.  Serob Stepanyan explained the fact that the
case was not registered in the registry by that “the citizen had a vision
problem and the person went out and we did not manage to register.”

To notice, the citizen
told us he did not have a vision problem. By the way, the polling station was
crowded and this was not the only case when citizens asked for help.

Marianna Gharamanyan

Henaran.am

Legal Initiative
“Elections 2012” cooperates with a number of media including henaran.am on May
6