Despite Heated Campaign, Many Chose to Not Vote

On June 7, I visited Armenia’s Tashir with a Swedish colleague to watch the voting process there. There are posters of Samvel Karapetyan everywhere. Everyone speaks of him with admiration. Next to the half-ruined buildings and factories left over from the Soviet era are shining business centers. “Everything you see here was built with Samvel Karapetyan’s funds,” said one resident, a grandmother named Haykanush, 87, who owns a little shop in from the church.

In the morning, Narek Karapetyan arrived at the polling station in Tashir, where everyone hugged and kissed him, and wished him success in the elections. “It will only take you 10 minutes, my fellow citizens, please all of you participate in the elections, and vote for whomever you want,” Karapetyan said to those gathered at the polling station.

When we returned from Tashir to Vanadzor, posters for Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan were clearly visible on the walls of all the shops and city’s walls. It was unnecessary to ask the people sitting under those posters who they would vote for. It is clear that the answer is Pashinyan.

In this post-election period, the Armenian Mirror-Spectator has spoken to ordinary people from different regions of Armenia. Various polls have already stated that almost half of the Armenian population did not participate in the elections. Many hesitate to mention their names when they were asked for whom they voted.

One person from Yerevan replied, “I didn’t vote for anyone. I voted for my family. I will continue to water trees as I used to, nothing will change in my life.”

Another person, a Hrazdan resident, echoed the fatalistic sentiment.