Armenian parliamentary elections cannot be called legitimate: Viktor Vodolatsky

Viktor Vodolatsky, first deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee on CIS Affairs, Eurasian Integration and Relations with Compatriots, commented to Alpha News on the parliamentary elections held in Armenia.

“Given that not only CIS observers, but also European Union observers who were there, including in the corridors, acknowledge that the elections held in Armenia cannot be called legitimate, as they were falsified. There were threats against members of electoral commissions and their families, there were violations during the vote count when the power was cut, after which the number of votes for Nikol Pashinyan’s party immediately jumped. It is a nonsense to seize parliament in such a way. It is wrong, it is illegitimate,” Viktor Vodolatsky said.

According to the deputy, Nikol Pashinyan is attempting to come to power illegitimately, using the election-rigging models applied in Moldova or Romania.

“The fact that they are today terrorizing people, opening criminal cases against Gagik Tsarukyan, persecuting Robert Kocharyan and other political leaders, Samvel Karapetyan among them, shows that Nikol Pashinyan and his inner circle, along with his handlers who arrived from France and Romania and who also falsified elections in Moldova, are today on a path of lawlessness, destroying the opposition by opening criminal cases and trying to crush it in this way. By jailing Gagik Tsarukyan, they believe his party will accept the result announced today by the Central Electoral Commission. Therefore, any clear-thinking person today understands that Nikol Pashinyan has come, or is attempting to come, to power illegitimately,” Viktor Vodolatsky concluded.