2018 September 22

Anti-Corruption Daily

Anti-Corruption Sep/22/2018: Lat-minute Yerevan election intrigues, voter fraud reports, police raid. Sanitek says they've solved their problems. (MORE BELOW)
by ar_david_hh

Disclaimer: All the accused are innocent until proven guilty by the court of law, even if they may sound as being guilty. Currency in Armenian Drams ֏ unless specified otherwise.

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Good Saturday!

The third criminal case is launched in Yerevan for an attempted voter bribery. Just like in previous two cases, someone approached a resident and promised a bribe, this time in the form of annulling part of their water bill debt. https://armenpress.am/arm/news/948139/

Hi, I’m Johnny Knoxville, and this is Bad Grandpa Reboot. Two citizens contacted the police and notified that a 74 year old man promised them AMD 60k each if they each can gather names and signatures of 10 other Zeytun residents who are willing to vote for a particular political party in Yerevan elections. The men apparently collected and handed over the names, but decided to contact the police. The 74 year old man has testified and confirmed the incident. The police is investigating. https://armenpress.am/arm/news/948144/

A citizen has contacted the police and reported that several people are distributing a bribe near Gevorg Chaush statue, from a BHK party office. The police is conducting searches in the office. BHK calls it a fake report by the citizen and tells the police not to waste their time. BHK candidate Naira Zohrabyan calls for police chief Osipyan’s resignation, although it is unclear what Osipyan’s guilt is https://armlur.am/841055/

(So far there are 3 criminal cases against several persons in-absentia. In the first case, two people approached an elderly woman and promised a bribe. The woman said the people were from BHK party, but it is yet to be verified. In two other cases the details are unknown.)

BHK interrupts a press conference in which other party members were presenting election monitoring commission's findings about electoral conduct violations, in which BHK was also accused of violating protocols. A heated argument ensues. https://youtu.be/k6_96lDXSog?t=10

HETQ publishes the election fundraising sources. 65% of donations to BHK were from unemployed citizens, many of whom donated the maximum allowed AMD 1mln amount to the campaign. Some of the donors donated more than the money they own according to their financial disclosures. 15% of QP's donations were from unemployed. One of their donors said she comes from a rich family. BHK raised 60mln, QP 40mln, Luys 8mln, Heritage 8mln, OEK 5mln http://hetq.am/arm/news/93202/ovqer-en-finansavorel-avaganu-teknatsuneri-qarozarshavy%E2%80%A4-tvyalneri-baza.html

Saturday is a silent day in Yerevan. The political parties have ended their campaigns. People are preparing for the Sunday vote. 12 parties and alliances are fighting for 65 municipality seats. Vote wisely, Yerevan! https://news.am/arm/news/472193.html

Miracle? Sanitek’s new garbage trucks have arrived and the old units have been repaired. The company promises to quickly solve the trash accumulation issue that the city has faced in the past several months https://armlur.am/840978/

Football Federation elects Arthur Venetsyan as it’s new chief, after having Ruben Hayrapetyan in the position for 16 years https://armenpress.am/arm/news/948150/ ------- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hd2xiqUtdyo

.... Venetsyan says the soccer ticket prices will be reduced. The cheapest tickets to national games will be lowered from AMD 4,000 to 1,000. Similar changes to the more expensive seats. https://armenpress.am/arm/news/948159/

Azeri side used a large caliber weapon against the Armenian civilian settlement. Here is the footage of the damage to the walls https://news.am/arm/news/471781.html

Foreign Minster says they haven’t asked CSTO to intervene, but are ready to do so if necessary. Yesterday, CSTO released a statement calling for a ceasefire on AZ-ARM border https://news.am/arm/news/472344.html

Justice Ministry has submitted a proposal to toughen the deportation laws for illegal immigrants who committed a crime and are sentenced to prison in Armenia. Steps will be taken to prevent their re-entry. https://armlur.am/840857/

Russian protesters imitate the Armenian opposition methods used during the Velvet Revolution, while protesting against the Russian pension age hikes and other issues. IN RUSSIAN: https://youtu.be/V0jWdN1RZrk?list=WL&t=294

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Link to original report and comments: https://www.reddit.com/r/armenia/comments/9i2ovm/anticorruption_sep222018_latminute_yerevan/