Samvel Hayrapetyan, who was nominated by Armenia’s opposition Heritage Party in the early parliamentary election that was conducted Sunday in Election District No. 38 of Syunik Region, is not preparing to congratulate ruling Republican Party (RPA) candidate Armen Karapetyan for winning the election.  

Heritage’s candidate does not accept the election results and is preparing to appeal the results.  

Hayrapetyan himself told the aforesaid to Armenian News-NEWS.am, and added that the RPA candidate’s votes are fake, whereas his votes are real.

He stressed that the ruling party made use of all leverages of power and also distributed a large number of electoral bribes.   

Samvel Hayrapetyan stressed that normal elections were conducted inside the election precincts, and the authorities rigged the election outside the precincts. 

He is preparing to petition to the Central Electoral Commission for a recount of the ballots.

Hayrapetyan noted that they will appeal the election results at all relevant agencies, but they do not have any particular expectations.

To note, RPA candidate Armen Karapetyan has won the early parliamentary election that was conducted Sunday in Election District No. 38 of Syunik Region. Karapetyan, who is former advisor to the Governor of Syunik and former Mayor of the City of Kapan, received 20,744 votes, whereas the other candidate, Samvel Hayrapetyan, who was nominated by the opposition Heritage Party, received 3,555 votes in his favor. A total of 50,370 voters cast their ballots, and 1,037 of the ballots were declared invalid. The National Assembly seat from Election District No. 38 had become vacant when MP Vahe Hakobyan was appointed Governor of Syunik.