ArmInfo. The Ministry of Defense refutes information about giving instructions to servicemen during the voting.
Thus, in a statement by the Armenian Defense Ministry, it is stated that information is circulated in social networks and a number of media outlets that during the voting in the early parliamentary elections on June 20, 2021, military personnel were instructed to vote for a certain political force.
"All such information in the Ministry of Defense is subjected to detailed study. The statements available at the moment in the publications do not correspond to reality. It is obvious that the statements about the instructions are based solely on the facts of the coordinated delivery of military personnel to the polling stations, and the video materials for the publications are evidence of what has been said: in these videos only servicemen are shown at the polling stations, and the statements about giving instructions are the assumptions of the authors of these videos, which are devoid of any reasonable argument.
Moreover, at the moment, at the polling stations indicated in the publications, no violations were recorded by the members of the election commission during the voting of servicemen, "the RA Ministry of Defense noted, adding that servicemen were brought to the polling stations in groups, since this is the charter, which presupposes the coordinated implementation of their movements.
"As for the pre-election process and the voting itself, there is a corresponding order of the Minister of Defense, which categorically prohibits the conduct of election campaigning among servicemen and the direction of voting in favor of any candidate. We urge you to refrain from unfounded, unconfirmed statements about the voting of servicemen. The Ministry of Defense continues study messages related to the voting of servicemen, "the RA Ministry of Defense noted.