Hraparak daily of Armenia writes as follows, in particular: As in the previous, a large number of people participated in the CEC [i.e. Central Electoral Commission] courses in these elections as well, as a result of which they receive relevant certificates to participate in the work of the election commissions [in the June 7 parliamentary election]. According to our information, this process also has not gone unnoticed by the CC [i.e.

Armenia’s ruling Civil Contract party], which is revealing unprecedented ingenuity to prevent a change of power. Accordingly, the CC “uncovered” the opposition members of the [election] commissions and, through third parties, “worked with” them, tried to convince [them] not to participate in the elections. It is no secret that the opposition forces [in Armenia] expect that through their members in the [election] commissions, they need to conduct monitoring at the polling stations so that [election] fraud is not committed. Now they [i.e. the CC] are trying to reduce that monitoring.

The question arises: if they [i.e. the CC] do not have a plan to rig the elections, why are they neutralizing the opposition members of the [election] commissions? By the way, the [election] commission members are paid from the state budget for this work.

This year, that amount will be 150,000 drams for the chairperson of the commission, 75,000 for a commission member. According to our information, they [i.e. the CC] are trying to financially incentivize the opposition's quota members so that they decline to work during the [June 7] elections, [so that] the oppositionists cannot "close" the polling stations, and the authorities can do their dirty work.