Oppositionist: PTA spent approximately 40 minutes broadcasting  propaganda in favor of Civil Contract party

ArmInfo. The Public Television of Armenia (PTA) broadcast propaganda in favor of the "Civil Contract" party for approximately 40 minutes. This was stated by Gegham Manukyan, a member of the Armenian parliament from the opposition "Armenia" faction, in a video posted on his Facebook page.

However, as the MP noted, PTA did not broadcast the "Armenia" bloc's  press conference at the same time.  "This is essentially an abuse of  administrative resources. The Armenia bloc is one of the largest  political forces participating in the country's parliamentary  elections. However, PTA does not broadcast the political force's  press conference live. However, about an hour ago, PTA broadcast a  press conference of the Civil Contract party for about 40 minutes.  Such an outrageous use of administrative resources, as well as  biased, one-sided campaigning, would never occur to anyone," Manukyan  asserted.

According to him, a similar incident occurred only during the 2017  parliamentary elections, when a representative of one of the  political forces held a short press conference after the vote.  "However, as far as I remember, there was a huge uproar back then.  Meanwhile, today, representatives of the ruling party, live on PTA,  spread lies about the major opposition forces participating in the  parliamentary elections," the opposition figure noted. Moreover, as  the MP noted, as of 5:00 PM, almost as many people had voted in the  elections as in the entire day of the 2021 elections. "Everyone's  participation is crucial. Go to the polling stations before 8:00 PM,"  Manukyan concluded.

As a reminder, Armenia is holding its regular parliamentary elections  on June 7. 2,500 polling stations opened across the country at 8:00  AM local time. Most of them are equipped with surveillance cameras.   According to the Migration Service of the Ministry of Internal  Affairs of Armenia, just over 2.5 million citizens are eligible to  vote. Voter turnout as of 5:00 PM was 48.92%. The highest turnout was  in Syunik and Tavush. Eighteen political forces - two blocs and 16  parties - are participating in the elections. The front-runners  include current Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's Civil Contract  party, businessman Samvel Karapetyan's Strong Armenia bloc, second  President Robert Kocharyan's Armenia bloc, and businessman Gagik  Tsarukyan's Prosperous Armenia party. Since early morning, observers  and journalists have been reporting numerous violations during the  voting process.