2018 October 21

Anti-Corruption Daily

Anti-Corruption Oct/21/2018: WEEKEND EDITION. Provincial elections. Another mayor down. Yerevan marks 2,800th anniversary (MORE BELOW)
by ar_david_hh

All the accused are innocent until proven guilty by the court of law. Currency in Armenian Drams unless specified otherwise.

The reformed Electoral Code will allow voters to see the candidate names. It will be like the Yerevan elections. You can see the list of people you’re voting for, but you can’t deny a specific candidate or add someone to the list. For example, while voting for BHK, you could see that #1 candidate on the ballot is Gagik Tsarukyan, #2 is Zohrabyan, e.t.c. The smaller parties are in favor of this because it requires less resources than having to campaign for dozens of individual candidates across the country. Now, they just have to campaign for their political party and ideas. Less about the person, more about the party. http://www.armtimes.com/hy/article/146657

Azatamut mayor has been charged with abuse of power and embezzlement, after it was discovered that he was allegedly part of a criminal scheme operated by a local government-funded organization. He is suspended from the mayor’s position. https://armenpress.am/arm/news/951585.html

... State Oversight boss Sanasaryan has met the complaining residents https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=huHzr88wU_Y

1,259,000 penalty cases are dropped against 109,000 citizens for violating a traffic law since 2012. Earlier, it was deemed that some laws were too strict and were meant to collect funds instead of preventing traffic violations. A law was passed, and now it has been enacted. Those who committed serious acts and were under a criminal investigation, are not part of this amnesty http://www.armtimes.com/hy/article/146653

After Pashinyan-Tsarukyan meeting, the BHK deputy governor of Ararat province has been reinstated to the position after he was fired by Pashinyan during the ARF/BHK purge followed by the counter-revolution bill https://factor.am/92264.html

Road repairs have doubled in Gegharquniq province https://armenpress.am/arm/news/951572.html

60 low-income women in Amasia will have a job at a new wool factory created by Euroasian Development Bank and the government https://www.a1plus.am/1646198.html ​

Lav Yereko https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zog0cvMB1ZQ

Singer Arthur Meschyan has been appointed as the lead architect of Yerevan. He is an architect by profession http://www.armtimes.com/hy/article/146677

Sunday marked the 2,800th anniversary of Yerevan.

Mayor Marutyan participated in the bike tournament http://www.armtimes.com/hy/article/146683 ------ VIDEO https://youtu.be/pbcv6ycCi6A?t=920

2,500 runners from 30 countries participated in the Yerevan running marathon PTOHO: https://hetq.am/hy/article/97368 ——- VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gx7frgUA6no

https://www.a1plus.am/1646250.html

Random video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8YuJmPNGxQ

Opa https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_5VAHynre0

Segments https://youtu.be/pbcv6ycCi6A?t=2098

Statue dedicated to the 2800 anniversary of Yerevan opened in a park http://www.armtimes.com/hy/article/146682

Representatives of 10 countries went to Tsitsernakaberd memorial https://armenpress.am/arm/news/951628.html

Three central bridges in Vilnius, Litva are featuring the Armenia flag dedicated to 2,800th Yerevan anniversary https://armenpress.am/arm/news/951560.html

Numerous festivals across the city. Jazz, chorus, Taraz catwalk https://style.news.am/arm/news/53979/erevani-2800-amyakynewsam-style-i-tesanyutyum.html

Police plays Yerevan anthem https://youtu.be/YmdffGdukYg

Police dances to Sardarapat song https://youtu.be/qwyIYwC8tUo

Ethnic minorities organized a festival in English Park https://factor.am/92366.html

The cycling dude who won multiple tournaments earlier this year has suffered an injury and will skip the next World Cup tournament phase in Canada 🙏 https://armenpress.am/arm/news/951641.html

Figure skater Slavik Hayrapetyan has won bronze in Belarus International tournament https://armenpress.am/arm/news/951643.html

LOCAL ELECTIONS!

QP (Pashinyan party) David Khudatyan elected as Armavir mayor with 68% of the votes https://www.hraparak.am/posts/5bccc2a2e1ed0206a48cf7fb/դավիթ-խուդաթյանը-ընտրվեց-արմավիրի-քաղաքապետ

Popular independent local businessman Gevorg Parsyan defeats QP candidate 54-44 in Kapan municipal elections. QP has accepted the results. https://news.am/arm/news/477033.html

QP Diana Gasparyan wins Ejmiatsin mayoral elections, with over twice the votes of the runner-up. She is officially the first female mayor. The city was formerly rules by Manvel Tushonka Grigoryan’s family https://youtu.be/oNVn2tQ3bDU?t=13

QP Edgar Khachatryan wins Solak municipal elections with a thin margin in a close race against a local independent candidate. He will replace the HHK mayor. https://news.am/arm/news/477037.html

Independent Sevak Mikaelyan, whom the QP has refused to endorse, has won the Hrazdan municipal elections with 69% of the votes. He will replace the HHK mayor who is facing corruption and embezzlement charges. QP did not have a candidate here. https://news.am/arm/news/477038.html

... Informed Citizens organization led by Daniel Ionessian (the person brokering the Electoral Code deal between parties) has released an audio call in which Sevak Mikaelyan is heard asking a school director if he could use his transportation to bring 100 students to a rally (not to voting stations, this was before elections). It is unclear whether bringing people to a political rally is against the law. The authorities are investigating it. Daniel Ionessian's organization has a record of exposing electoral violations since 2014. https://youtu.be/pbcv6ycCi6A?t=1930

33 various voting irregularities are reported during the elections in 9 provinces. Mostly small incidents. In 3 cases, a person tried to vote several times. In once instance, a worker who was supposed to help a blind voter has decided to cast the ballot himself in the box room, while the law says the disabled person should have been there during the actual casting. In Hrazdan, there was a report of someone obstructing the job of one of the observers. https://www.a1plus.am/1646283.html

Election stats https://armenpress.am/arm/news/951665.html

Link to original report: https://www.reddit.com/r/armenia/comments/9q9k1e/anticorruption_oct212018_weekend_edition/