YEREVAN. – What I see now was predictable prior to Armenia’s presidential election on February 18, Yerevan State Institute of Theater and Cinema (YSITC) Rector Armen Mazmanyan stated during a press conference on Saturday.

He noted that this is conditioned on the fact that two candidates appeared prior to the vote and stated that the election will be rigged, and thus a backdrop was set so that there will be something to play with afterwards.   

In Mazmanyan’s words, there also is an apparent attempt at depreciating the phenomenon of elections in the country.

“It became clear that there is no difference between the electing the president and electing a town hall chief [in the country],” the YSITC rector said.  

Mazmanyan also noted that there were numerous opposition representatives in the electoral commissions, expressed bewilderment that the opposition speaks about election fraud only now, and asked, if this was the case, why the opposition representatives signed under the protocols of these commissions. 

In his words, the opposition was unable to unite, based on their own ambitions they did not agree on a single oppositional candidate, and thus they remained decoupled, snatched votes from one another, and a depression started among the people, whereas serving President Serzh Sargsyan objectively had the votes he needed.   

“They convinced that poor Serj Tankian [the world-renowned Armenian musician and lead vocalist of the acclaimed rock band, System of a Down], from far away, that, ‘Pick up your sword, [and] come; they are slaughtering us here!’ Do you consider this to be a noble political technology?” Mazmanyan asked? 

He also noted that the very same oppositional forces in Armenia wanted neither a fair election nor for opposition Heritage Party Chairman Raffi Hovannisian—who is declared runner-up to the winner, incumbent President Serzh Sargsyan, as a result of the presidential election on February 18, but who claims to be the real winner in the vote—to be elected. And if they truly wanted this, they should have joined Hovannisian before the vote, and not now.     

Armen Mazmanyan stressed that if the opposition wants a change in power, it should commence this from the lower echelons: prefectures, city councils, etc.

Photo by Arsen Sargsyan/NEWS.am