YEREVAN. - The U.S. Embassy to Armenia has welcomed the announcement made by Armenian Prosecutor General on investigating the troubling report published by Hayastan24.

The message disseminated by the U.S. Embassy reads:

“Following the recent parliamentary election, the U.S. and other international organizations issued a statement noting that the electoral process was tainted by credible information about vote-buying and pressure on voters. In that statement, we urged the Armenian government, political parties, and civil society to work together to address these concerns through legal mechanisms, and we thus welcome the announcement today by the Prosecutor General that he is investigating the troubling report just published by Hayastan24. A credible and transparent investigation of this kind would be in line with the Prime Minister’s February 9 warning against the use of administrative resources. We trust that the government will ensure there is no retaliatory action against any individual or organization that comes forward with credible information for investigation.”

As reported earlier, Hasyastan24 published the recording of one of the pre-election meetings at SAS Group. In the recording, the meeting host forces the employees to bring votes in favor of the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) territorial candidate Artak Sargsyan, promising that those who manage to attract many voters will be awarded, while those refusing to do that may even be sacked.

The Prosecutor General’s Office of Armenia informed Armenian News – NEWS.am the recording of the pre-election meeting held with SAS Group employees published on the Internet is being considered by the Prosecutor General’s Office.