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Special groups will be set up in Armenia’s Aragatsotn province. The group members will meet with rural residents to speak about the advantages of the draft constitutional amendments put to the upcoming referendum, Governor of Aragatsotn province Sargis Sahakyan said in an interview with Panorama.am. The document has no shortcomings, in his opinion.

The governor was surprised to hear the correspondent’s question about ‘No’ front made up of representatives of those political forces and civil society of Armenia who oppose the constitutional reform. “Who is that? I don’t know these people,” Sahakyan noted.

After being told by the correspondent of Panorama.am that for example the opposition Heritage Party is among the forces that joined ‘No’ front, the governor said: “Who are these people? What do they want? What have they done for this country, their homeland?”

“Only one representative of Heritage remains in the parliament now. … Only Zaruhi has remained (editor: Armenian MP Zaruhi Postanjyan, the head of ‘Heritage’ faction)” , the governor said.

In response to an attempt to remind him about the leader of Heritage Party Raffi Hovannisian, the governor said: “We have nothing to worry about. They have no supporters in the country’s regions”.

When asked if reform opponents will be allocated any areas so that they could set up their offices ahead of the constitutional referendum, S. Sahakyan said: “They need to come and submit applications. Of course, we will examine those applications”.
When asked about the opinion of Aragatsotn’s population about the constitutional referendum, the governor briefly replied: “You will learn about it after the vote”.

S. Sahakyan flatly refused to comment on rumors and claims about the possible vote rigging during the constitutional referendum: “I cannot address such rumors. I did not hear. I don’t know”.

In response to the correspondent’s remark that for example, such statements were made, for example, by Armenian National Congress (editor: ANC led by first Armenian President Levon Ter-Petrosyan), the governor of Aragatsotn said: “At the time, in 1996, they began to engage in vote rigging, they stood at the origins of that phenomenon, while we overcame it. They’d better think about themselves, about how they laid the foundations of that phenomenon in 1996, spread discord among people, and now they are discussing that subject”.

It is noteworthy that the Central Election Commission of Armenia has already received a list of 13 buildings in Aragatsotn province where campaign offices of ‘Yes’ movement in support of the referendum and ‘No’ front of reform opponents can be located. Free campaigns will be conducted there.