YEREVAN (Azatutyun) — Five members of an Armenian opposition group were detained and indicted late on Monday the day after it finished second in a local election won by the ruling Civil Contract party.
The Anti-Corruption Committee (ACC) searched their homes in the town of Vagharshapat before accusing them of vote buying. The law-enforcement agency declined to immediately give any details of the accusations.
All five suspects were then set free pending investigation. The leader of their Victory alliance, Sevak Khachatryan, confirmed on Monday, November 17, that three of them ran as candidates for the local council of a district comprising Vagharshapat and 17 nearby villages.
Khachatryan rejected the accusations as politically motivated, saying that Civil Contract cannot come to terms with the fact that its main local challenger garnered more than 10,000 votes.
“They are also worried that in five months, during the National Assembly elections, they will face in this community oppositionists with so many votes,” he told a news conference.
According to the official election results, Civil Contract won the weekend ballot with over 48 percent of the vote, giving it an absolute majority in the council empowered to appoint the district chief. Victory got about 32 percent, followed by another opposition group.
