My political assessment is that illegal interference in the expression of voters’ will is unacceptable, and law enforcement must respond to all and any cases, regardless of which political force’s representatives are engaging in activities prohibited by law. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated this during the question-and-answer session with the government, in the National Assembly of Armenia Wednesday—and referring to the arrest of the brother and nephew of Catholicos of All Armenians Karekin II on charges of obstructing the mayoral election process in Vagharsapat (Etchmiadzin) city.

“My political position applies to everyone, including ourselves. Law enforcement must respond clearly. This is a red line for us, and such processes cannot have a future in Armenia.

Unfortunately, we still do not have mechanisms. We even had discussed at the last meeting of the Corruption Prevention Committee that in cases where election bribes are being distributed or incidents are recorded, we do not have mechanisms to quantify the impact as to what effect it has had on election results. (...). These mechanisms need to be considered, but the main actors there must be law enforcement, who can detect and take measures in cases of vote buying and all similar incidents,” the Armenian PM said.