They were rounded up in what Armenia’s Anti-Corruption Committee (ACC) called a crackdown on vote buying attempts strongly denied by the Mother Armenia and Our City blocs. These and other opposition contenders say the authorities are simply desperate to prevent the ruling Civil Contract party’s defeat in Sunday’s election.
The ACC charged the eight opposition activists with giving or promising vote bribes or engaging in election-related benevolence which is also not allowed by Armenian law. In a statement released late on Thursday, the law-enforcement agency said three of them confessed to committing “criminal acts.” But it did not name these and other suspects or specify the crimes attributed to them.
All of the suspects were released from custody by Friday afternoon. They included the father and a son of Our City leader Martun Grigorian. An Armenian court placed them under so-called “administrative surveillance,” restricting their freedom of movements and political activities pending investigation.
In particular, they cannot leave their home from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m. and talk to other suspects or witnesses in the case. Their lawyer, Arsen Babayan, condemned these restrictions as unfounded. Grigorian, who holds a seat in the Armenian parliament, continued to link the prosecution of his family members to the weekend ballot and insist that he is undaunted by it.
The case against them stems from reports that the family had some of Gyumri’s battered streets covered with crushed stone to make them more passable. Grigorian says the roadworks were aimed at exposing the incompetence of the ruling Civil Contract party and its mayoral candidate and acting Gyumri mayor, Sarik Minasian.
Hayk Mamijanian, another opposition parliamentarian, argued that Minasian’s Facebook page is full of videos of more large-scale roadworks clearly designed to win over local voters.
“Sarik Minasian did the example the same thing,” said Mamijanian. “The only difference is that Minasian covered several Gyumri streets with crushed stone at the expense of the community budget whereas Martun Grigorian spent his own money.”
Voters in Gyumri will go to the polls on Sunday to elect a new municipal council that will in turn appoint the city’s mayor. Pashinian’s party failed to win the last local election held in 2021. It gained control of the municipal administration late last year following criminal charges brought against the unofficial leader of a local bloc that ran Armenia’s second largest city.