Hunger pressed voters in Hrazdan - oppositionist Aram Manukyan.

The population’s poverty and misery, and the consequences of emigration came into a direct clash in the recent municipal polls in Hrazdan town, an opposition activist has said.

At a news conference on Wednesday, Aram Manukyan, the head of the Armenian Pan-National Movement’s political board, compared the February 12 mayoral elections of Hrazdan with episodes of extreme poverty featured in Victor Hugo and Frantz Werfel’s novels. He said 400-500 people among the 1,850 voters in a polling station where he visited were immigrants.

“I witnessed uncommon things I had never seen before - numerous zeros instead of birth dates in the voters’ list. Lots of people do not have a birthday at all,” he said, adding that those voters were mainly refugees or former Iranian residents who are not interested in having their birth dates fixed in passports.

“Hunger got the better of the people. I experienced disgust at our authorities which have reduced the people to a state [of extreme poverty], where 5,000 drams ($13) is a salvation,” he said.

The activist noted, however, that despite those who were lured by ‘electoral bribes’, there were people who proved they are free in their choice and love their country.