YEREVAN. – The rigged elections in Armenia have caused a rift between the country’s authorities and citizenry. Presidential candidate, Nagorno-Karabakh Republic former FM Arman Melikyan said this during a press conference on Monday.   

In his words, the citizens of Armenia were deprived of the right to form a government by way of their own votes.

Melikyan divided the rigged elections into two phases: 1996, which said nothing ideological except for the fact that First President, opposition bloc Armenian National Congress leader, and then-President Levon Ter-Petrosyan must remain in office. And following the 1998 presidential election, when the Karabakh faction seized power by way of election fraud, and upon the argument that they will defend the interests of Nagorno-Karabakh.       

“The representatives from a variety of political forces took part in the election fraud that ensued 1998, and this continues to this day. [And] this leads to the fact that the authorities and the citizenry are living separate lives,” the presidential contender stressed.   

Photo by Arsen Sargsyan/NEWS.am