The incumbent Armenian authorities use various mechanisms to oversee and intimidate people. Former Human Rights Defender of Armenia Arman Tatoyan, who heads the Wings of Unity party’s proportional representation list of parliamentary candidates for the June 7 National Assembly election, stated this on Facebook Thursday.

Tatoyan explained that the “inspectors” who check water meters, with lists in their hands, demonstratively visit people’s homes and find out who they will vote for. He added that if these “inspectors” find out that people will not vote for the authorities, they make notes and instill a sense of fear, after which they preach in favor of the authorities and leave.

“They call places of work, places of study, and threaten people. We are already receiving reports almost every day about the measures that [PM] Nikol Pashinyan's bashi-bazouks are taking to keep our people in fear, to keep our citizens away from the elections by scaring them. You reduce classes, you take teachers to your [election campaign] meetings on GAZelles, and you even were saying that the GAZelles were [used by the former authorities] before," Tatoyan said, addressing Pashinyan.

He called on the people not to be afraid, because, in his assessment, the authorities themselves are afraid of the people.

Tatoyan called the upcoming parliamentary elections a choice of Armenia's future and national interests. "By voting for number 6 [i.e. the Wings of Unity party’s number on the ballots], you are helping us to get rid of these cowardly authorities and the climate of fear together, and we can all live and create for the sake of the future of our country," Arman Tatoyan concluded.

Source: https://news.am/en/news/1035303