During the recent elections in Gyumri and Parakar, the Independent Observer initiative, represented by Daniel Ioannisyan, conducted monitoring missions across all 16 polling stations in Parakar and 82 out of 84 in Gyumri. They documented a total of 61 violations from 41 polling stations, with 16 being procedural in nature.

Ioannisyan reported that there were three criminal reports filed concerning these elections. One pertains to a recording allegedly featuring Vardan Ghukasyan's voice; another involves Martun Grigoryan's combination of charity and pre-election campaigning related to road paving; and the third concerns the Civil Contract party, involving violations of the prohibition on charity and abuse of official position.

Specifically, on March 12, Sariк Minasyan, during a meeting with citizens, made several promises, including road-related commitments. While many of these were standard pre-election promises, he also mentioned that as a temporary solution, gravel paving would be implemented before the elections, not after. If this action wasn't planned within the community budget, it constitutes an abuse of official position.

Additionally, there were seven cases of voter direction (five in Gyumri, two in Parakar), four instances of disputes equally distributed between the two communities, five cases of open voting or breaches of voting secrecy (three in Gyumri, two in Parakar), three violations of observer rights, and 12 instances of unauthorized persons present in polling stations. In Gyumri, there were also three cases of theft or damage to voting materials and three instances of inaction by competent authorities.

Ioannisyan emphasized that vote-buying and violations of the prohibition on charity are serious crimes, and law enforcement agencies should respond promptly and effectively. He expressed concern over the Anti-Corruption Committee's handling of individuals arrested on March 27, noting that no preventive measures were applied or proposed to the court to restrict these individuals' further participation in the pre-election campaign.

He also noted that while there is information indicating that vote-buying and violations of the prohibition on charity occurred in Gyumri, there isn't sufficient evidence to assert that these actions were carried out by the individuals who were arrested.

The Anti-Corruption Committee had previously reported that on March 27, eight individuals were arrested on charges of giving or receiving electoral bribes and violating the prohibition on charity during elections. Among the detainees were representatives from both the Mother Armenia alliance and the Our City alliance led by Martun Grigoryan. On March 30, according to the Anti-Corruption Committee, a candidate from the Our City alliance and several others were detained on immediate suspicion of committing a crime.