Most electoral frauds were committed ‘outside polling stations,' says member of election monitoring group

Most of the vote-rigging practices, observed during today’s snap parliamentary election, were committed outside polling the stations in the form of police intimidations and detentions, a member of the Election Oversight Committee said today, commenting on the reported abuses.

Speaking at a news conference, Narek Samsonyan cited such episodes as sending police officers to the political opponents' campaign headquarters for detaining individuals.  

Describing the practice as a “low-key electoral fraud”, Samsonyan also condemned a recent incident of beating a proxy. 

In his words, many of those detained were “arbitrarily” taken to police stations, the National Security Service (NSS) and the Investigative Committee.

“The major frauds were committed outside the precinct[s], with the [political] opponents being directly deprived of exercising their electoral right. That is to say, the [kind of abuse] had both active and passive manifestations, and it is expected to essentially impact also the election outcome,” he warned.