Former deputy speaker of the National Assembly of Armenia Arpine Hovhannisyan, who is observing the presidential and parliamentary elections in Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh Republic), today told reporters that she has been receiving alarms from her fellow observers about a deputy candidate Artur Osipyan visiting various polling stations and stating that the elections are fraudulent.

According to Hovhannisyan, she personally visited one of the polling stations when she received the alarm. “I went to 1/4 polling station where Osipyan had been, but when I arrived, he wasn’t there. I entered another polling station where Osipyan was located at that moment and tried to talk to the chairperson of the electoral commission to understand why police officers hadn’t escorted Osipyan out of the polling station since he is a deputy candidate and has no right to be at a polling station, except when he is voting. Osipyan “attacked” me and said I have no right to be there, he is the leader of the Revolutionary Party of Artsakh and he has to make sure I don’t come to Artsakh ever again. I told him I wanted to understand why he was at the polling station, to which he said he has the right by law. When I asked him to explain, he started offending the former authorities of Armenia, the current authorities of Artsakh, threatened me and the other observers and didn’t let us observe the elections.”

Hovhannisyan added that she is preparing to file a report to the law-enforcement authorities of Artsakh.