Community Elections 2017: The defeated female head of community has requested a recount

The first elections of local self-governance bodies were held on 12th of February in 10 communities in the regions of Aragatsotn, Ararat, Armavir, Gegharkunik, Kotayk, Shirak and Syunik. In seven of the mentioned communities heads of communities were elected, while in the rest three local council elections took place.

Two out of 13 candidates for community headselections and two of 21 candidates applying for the local council seats were females.

Women were struggling for the position of community head in Akhurik village in Shirak Region and in Nurnus village in Kotayk Region. According to primary results, none of them succeeded.

VarditerGasparyan, the acting head of Akhurik village from RPA, who has been running the community since 2009, has lost the elections by a margin of a few votes. According to primary results, published in the official website of Central Electoral Commission, 262 voters granted their votes to V.Gasparyan, while her only opponent, non-partisan HovhannesPoghosyan received 277 votes.

 V.Gasparyan told WomenNet.am that she was surprised by such results, and suspects frauds, such as “carousel voting”.

“I am quite astonished by such results, no such thing could have happened. I have requested a recount today,” she noted. It’s worth to mention that 567 voters participated in elections in Akhurik and 28 ballots were considered invalid.

By the way, VarditerGasparyan will be in the fourth place of RPA’s rating list in Shirak region.

In NurnusAstghikMkrtchyan lost to the acting head of community by a significant margin: 97 voters favored the female candidate, while MnatsakanGevorgyan received 277 votes.

Both female candidates for the local council seats were registered in Daranak village. Onlyoneofthem received sufficient number of votes. MayramManukyan from the RPA, who works as a keeper in the local school, got 26 votes.She had the most votes in her favor.  AnahitManukyan received only 11 votes and won’t be included into the three-seat council. 78 voters participated in the elections here and two ballots were considered invalid.

H.Karapetyan