Lips Say One Thing, Hands Do Another Thing

Today Serzh Sargsyan met with the prosecutor general and discussed public concerns on election bribes and gave relevant instructions to him. Stepan Safaryan, Heritage parliamentary group chairman told Lragir.am he doesn’t believe the honesty of the authorities.

When we see they are fighting, we will believe. But we don’t see it, what shall we believe?

Do you think nothing has been done so far?

Some changes can be noticed, but it will be wrong to say that we have fair and free elections and there is no atmosphere of fear, no election bribes. I will believe their words only when I see any action. I see total repressions in the regions, people are coerced not to attend others’ rallies with the threat to be fired.

Serzh Sargsyan dwelt on impermissibility of election bribes. Does this phenomenon exist?

It exists and it is overwhelming. People speak about it everywhere. And if a whole society speaks about it, it can’t be false.

Is it possible to get rid of election bribes? It seems to be a crime that is difficult to prove.

It is possible unless the political forces decide not to offer [bribes]. I don’t think individuals give bribes, it is the decision of the parties, and the money doesn’t belong to ordinary party members. So, it is necessary to prevent election bribes at the level of party leaders. No accident, Heritage said party leaders need to sign the commitment not to give bribes, political charity and not to use other ways of steal votes.

Taking into account that ruling parties give bribes, do you believe they will give bribes with the right hand and punish with the left one?

I think the coalition parties never punish their own hands because it is the only way to reproduce. They have no other way. After such governance to establish legality, justice and wellfare in the country. The lips of these people say one thing but their hands do completely different things. We need to view the coalition parties as one single force.