Election Day, Noon: Reports of violations emerging . . .Former Armenia Ombudsman and current Heritage Party candidate Larisa Alaverdyan told ArmeniaNow that in her voting precinct 12/26 in Noragavit district at school N98, voters had been brought by buses and were given markers for marking their ballots. Alaverdyan complained to polling station officials and was told that voters were free to use “even their blood” for marking ballots. Alaverdyan said that, generally, the scene there was conducive to the so-called “carousel voting” violation that has been used in previous elections in Armenia and other countries. According to Alaverdyan, local observers at the precinct have called international observers to the precinct. She also said she will take measures to have the results at the precinct invalidated. In the Yerevan district of Shengavit, ArmeniaNow reporter Gayane Abrahamyan observed groups of people entering a condominium with passports and coming out with 3,000 drams each. Abrahamyan was told by voters there that the money had been given by representatives of the Republican Party of Armenia. In the 5/3 station of Davitashen, in Yerevan, Republican Party representative Levon Sargsyan (known throughout Armenia as “Flourmill Lyovik”) was stopped by proxies as he attempted to distribute already filled-in ballots to voters, asking them to return an empty ballot. Ruzan Khachatryan of the Peoples Party of Armenia told ArmeniaNow that she was informed that during last night, a ballot box was placed at Zvartnots Airport, where departing passengers were encouraged to vote before leaving. Accurate voter registration lists have been an obstacle to all elections in Armenia. Today, ArmeniaNow language editor Taguhi Susliyan went to vote in Precinct in school 184 in the Malatia-Sebastia community of Yerevan. Susliyan has voted in every election in independent Armenia's history. Today, though, her name did not appear on the voting list. She was advised to report her case to police. After casting his ballot this morning, President Robert Kocharyan told reporters he would “rather see a real opposition” in the parliament, “than foreign representation”. It was believed a reference to Artur Baghdasaryan, who was the subject of controversy in this campaign over a secretly taped conversation he had with a high-ranking British diplomat.
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