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Arf Will Not Field A Presidential Candidate

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  • Arf Will Not Field A Presidential Candidate

    ARF WILL NOT FIELD A PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE

    asbarez
    Wednesday, December 26th, 2012

    ARF Supreme Council of Armenia members Arsen Hambartsumian, Armen
    Rustamian and Aghvan Vardanian at a press conference Wednesday

    YEREVAN-The Armenian Revolutionary Federation Supreme Council of
    Armenia announced Wednesday that a special Congress of the party held
    a day before overwhelmingly decided to not field a candidate for the
    upcoming presidential elections in Armenia.

    "In accordance with the Supreme Assembly's July decision, the ARF
    Supreme Council of Armenia took the initiative of putting forward a
    process to form a wide accord around a unified political agenda.

    Efforts were made with active political forces and civic circles
    to create an accord around a political platform so as to develop
    a unified oppositional front," said a statement issued by the ARF
    Supreme Council of Armenia on Wednesday.

    "Both, this initiative and the political agenda that was introduced
    were welcomed and certain prerequisites for making the process
    effective did exist. The possibility existed to at least restore
    the people's broken trust in elections, to generate a qualitatively
    new situation, to conduct truly competitive elections and to create
    the ground for the regime change. However, preconceived approaches
    conditioning the accord with this or that concrete candidate prevented
    the efforts - to participate in the presidential election with a united
    agenda- from reaching their logical conclusion," added the statement.

    Taking the current situation into consideration and based on the
    aforementioned assertions, the ARF Supreme Council Assembly of Armenia,
    decided "1. Not to nominate a candidate for the upcoming February 18,
    2013 presidential election. 2. Ruled out supporting the candidate
    of the authorities, to authorize the Supreme Council to follow the
    pre-electoral processes and, if the need arises, to orient the ARF
    members and supporters accordingly. 3. To continue pursuing with all
    political means the realization of the party's seven-point platform,"
    added the statement.

    At a press conference Wednesday, ARF Supreme Council of Armenia
    representative Armen Rustamian, ARF Parliamentary Faction member
    Aghvan Vartanian and ARF Supreme Council of Armenia member Arsen
    Hambartsumian outlined the party's decision by saying that the current
    reality in Armenia-the manner in which elections are run and the
    shadowy political relations inherent in the country-was one of the
    factors that prompted the party to stay out of the elections.

    "The nature of elections which has unfortunately taken hold in
    Armenia and - like many other areas of our life such as the economy
    and political relations - is shadowy," said Vartianian.

    "People go to the polls but the decision [on an election outcome]
    was made long ago through other means and levers. We have not managed
    to create joint mechanisms for changing that nature," added Vartanian.

    He also cited the failure to form a united opposition front by
    nominating a single candidate.

    "Participation in the predetermined elections would mean being part of
    a ready-made scenario. We have said on many occasions we do no play
    the game of others and are never guided by the scenario set forth by
    others," said Vartanian.

    The ARF leader emphasized that not nominating its own candidate
    did not mean that the party will withdraw from taking party in the
    electoral process

    "On the contrary, we'll be trying to ensure that the electoral
    processes develop in the proper direction," he said.

    The ARF publicized its election platform earlier this fall with a
    seven-point plan that included shifting Armenia's governance to a
    parliamentary system and urging the immediate removal of Armenia's
    signature from the Armenia-Turkey protocols.

    Party leaders met with major political factions in Armenia, including
    President Serzh Sarkisian, but were unable to create broad-based
    support for the plan.

    Sarkisian, who made his re-election bid official last month, rejected
    the two aforementioned main tenets of the plan.

    On Tuesday, former president and leader of the Armenian National
    Congress, Levon Ter-Petrosian also announced that he would not seek
    the presidency, joining the leader of the Prosperous Armenian Party
    Gagik Tsarukian, who announced that he, too, would not run for office
    and pledged that his party would not endorse Sarkisian's candidacy.




    From: A. Papazian
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