WHO WILL ARF NOMINATE AS JOINT CANDIDATE?
Naira Hayrumyan
Story from Lragir.am News:
http://www.lragir.am/engsrc/comments26807.html
Published: 18:02:52 - 10/07/2012
Who does the ARF consider for a joint candidate of the opposition?
Today the representative of the ARF Supreme Body Armen Rustamyan
announced that the ARF is ready to nominate a candidate but would
like to support the joint candidate of the opposition to consolidate
at least half of the population who did not vote for the coalition
parties.
Who will the ARF vote for? Who can bring together the opposition
forces which can hardly be reconciled? Judging by the current state
of affairs, only a representative of the Prosperous Armenia Party
can be a joint candidate. There are several premises for that.
First, the PAP is a leader in the non-governmental field at least in
terms of the number of supporters and financial resources and will
influence the choice of the joint candidate. Second, the ARF may
support the PAP candidate while it would hardly support the candidate
of the Armenian National Congress. Besides, the Congress has already
announced to continue to cooperate with Prosperous Armenia, and it
is not ruled out that the Congress will also support the PAP candidate.
These considerations and discussions began immediately after the
parliamentary elections but as the elections are drawing nearer, the
picture is getting clearer. And the decision of the ARF to postpone
its nomination is evidence to probability of a joint candidate.
Only the Heritage has announced to nominate a candidate. It will be
the party leader Raffi Hovannisian. This was predictable because the
Heritage was reluctant to cooperate with the PAP, referring to it as
part of the oligarchic system.
Certainly, there can be a miracle and a new person will appear who
will be acceptable for everyone who does not wish Serzh Sargsyan's
second term. But most probably we will be limited to old friends.
Since the ANC would not support Robert Kocharyan, the most acceptable
candidate is Vartan Oskanian.
Vartan Oskanian posts critical comments on his Facebook wall on
different urgent issues facing the country. Today he dwelt on gas price
and foreign debt. In addition, his parliamentary group has not joined
the motion for an extraordinary meeting of parliament to discuss
Harsnakar incident. This is evidence that the PAP's "alternative
approach" is highly selective. It is an alternative in some issues,
while in other issues it prefers to move down the stream.
It is possible that the PAP backed by Robert Kocharyan has
specially started this game about the joint candidate to make a
different decision on the last day, such as on the nomination of
Robert Kocharyan. If this is done on the very last day, none of the
opposition forces will be ready for such an outcome. The Congress
may refuse cooperation but it will have time to nominate a candidate.
Although, depending on the circumstances, Vartan Oskanian will be
acceptable to everyone.
From: A. Papazian
Naira Hayrumyan
Story from Lragir.am News:
http://www.lragir.am/engsrc/comments26807.html
Published: 18:02:52 - 10/07/2012
Who does the ARF consider for a joint candidate of the opposition?
Today the representative of the ARF Supreme Body Armen Rustamyan
announced that the ARF is ready to nominate a candidate but would
like to support the joint candidate of the opposition to consolidate
at least half of the population who did not vote for the coalition
parties.
Who will the ARF vote for? Who can bring together the opposition
forces which can hardly be reconciled? Judging by the current state
of affairs, only a representative of the Prosperous Armenia Party
can be a joint candidate. There are several premises for that.
First, the PAP is a leader in the non-governmental field at least in
terms of the number of supporters and financial resources and will
influence the choice of the joint candidate. Second, the ARF may
support the PAP candidate while it would hardly support the candidate
of the Armenian National Congress. Besides, the Congress has already
announced to continue to cooperate with Prosperous Armenia, and it
is not ruled out that the Congress will also support the PAP candidate.
These considerations and discussions began immediately after the
parliamentary elections but as the elections are drawing nearer, the
picture is getting clearer. And the decision of the ARF to postpone
its nomination is evidence to probability of a joint candidate.
Only the Heritage has announced to nominate a candidate. It will be
the party leader Raffi Hovannisian. This was predictable because the
Heritage was reluctant to cooperate with the PAP, referring to it as
part of the oligarchic system.
Certainly, there can be a miracle and a new person will appear who
will be acceptable for everyone who does not wish Serzh Sargsyan's
second term. But most probably we will be limited to old friends.
Since the ANC would not support Robert Kocharyan, the most acceptable
candidate is Vartan Oskanian.
Vartan Oskanian posts critical comments on his Facebook wall on
different urgent issues facing the country. Today he dwelt on gas price
and foreign debt. In addition, his parliamentary group has not joined
the motion for an extraordinary meeting of parliament to discuss
Harsnakar incident. This is evidence that the PAP's "alternative
approach" is highly selective. It is an alternative in some issues,
while in other issues it prefers to move down the stream.
It is possible that the PAP backed by Robert Kocharyan has
specially started this game about the joint candidate to make a
different decision on the last day, such as on the nomination of
Robert Kocharyan. If this is done on the very last day, none of the
opposition forces will be ready for such an outcome. The Congress
may refuse cooperation but it will have time to nominate a candidate.
Although, depending on the circumstances, Vartan Oskanian will be
acceptable to everyone.
From: A. Papazian