A senior representative of the opposition Armenian National Congress (ANC) believes that the pattern of violations during Sunday’s election in Hrazdan, where a pro-government candidate defeatss his ANC-backed rival, will be replicated during the parliamentary elections due in May.

Aram Manukyan, who leads the Armenian National Movement, one of the core parties in the opposition alliance, was a proxy for the ANC’s narrowly defeated candidate, Sasun Mikayelyan, in the Hrazdan mayoral election. He claims it was largely due to vote buying that incumbent mayor Aram Danielyan managed to get reelected.

“It turned out that hunger beat a citizen. People did not hide that despite having no warm clothes to wear on that cold day from 8 am they were elbowing each other to get to the polling station to vote. I felt disgusted at our authorities that they drove people to such misery that 5,000 drams (about $13) is a salvation,” Manukyan said at a press conference on Wednesday.

(Danielyan and the Republican Party of Armenia rejected the claims, denying any vote buying in the elections.)

At the same time, Manukyan acknowledged that no violations were registered at polling stations, but stressed that “everything was done outside the voting premises”. That’s why, according to him, the ANC is not going to protest the election outcome, as it is difficult to prove facts of vote buying. Still, the ANC member is satisfied that 11,500, or some 46 percent of the voters who came to polling stations in Hrazdan, voted for Mikayelyan.

“This is the fair number, the number of people who would not cave in to terror, the number of independent people. I consider it to be a very serious success,” said Manukyan, reminding that in the 2008 presidential election the opposition candidate, Levon Ter-Petrosyan, polled only 5,700 votes in Hrazdan.

Manukyan said that ahead of the May parliamentary elections they will increase pressure on the government for the purpose of preventing electoral fraud.

“International pressure will be added, we’ll apply to all our colleagues in the Council of Europe to exert pressure on Armenia to hold fair elections,” he said.

Discussing why an opposition rally scheduled for Friday has been rescheduled to March 1, Manukyan said that the only reason was the severe cold Yerevan is presently experiencing. At the same time, he confirmed that the ANC’s list of candidates at the May parliamentary elections was not ready yet.

Speaking about the decision by former foreign minister Vartan Oskanian to join Prosperous Armenia, the second largest governing party (and his application was granted on Thursday), the ANC representative called it a “frivolous step”.

“This man who is 62 and has been in politics for 20 years is only now coming to realize that he is a liberal or a socialist. It is clear that this is not his realization, this has been dictated to him,” said Manukyan, without elaborating on who is behind Oskanian’s move.