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  • Armenia prepares for presidential elections

    Vestnik Kavkaza, Russia
    Sept 27 2012

    Armenia prepares for presidential elections

    Susanna Petrosyan, Yerevan. Exclusively to VK


    Armenia wakes up after summer. The political situation begins to adapt
    to the presidential elections in February 2013. Leaders of the union
    National Self-Determination and the party New Times, Parujr Ajrikian
    and Aram Karapetian, intend to go to the polls. But both of them are
    outsiders. Most likely, this group will include two or three more
    candidates who take part in elections for participation only.

    The more important politician, the chairman of the opposition party
    Heritage, Raffi Ovannosian, stated on ontention to participate in the
    elections. The former US citizen who gained Armenian citizenship in
    the early 2000s has the right to go to the polls for the first time.
    Ovannisian stated that Armenia needs an innovative president who would
    be able to fulfill necessary reforms. Moreover, he said that the law
    should be supreme in the country, power branches should be separated,
    major business should be separated from the public management, and a
    vicious monopoly system should be destroyed.

    After the July session the administration of Dashnaktsutyun declared
    that the party might present its own candidate at the presidential
    elections, but his name is still unknown.

    Nevertheless, none of key players has stated on participation in the
    elections officially. Of course, it doesn't concern Serge Sargsyan.
    Nobody has doubts that the current president will go to the polls. We
    mean his predecessors who were politically active during Sargsyan's
    term. At the moment, observers reject the possibility of Levon
    Ter-Petrosyan and Robert Kocharyan's participation in the elections.

    The head of the research center `Sociometer', Agaron Adibekian, thinks
    that if Robert Kocharyan sees surveys data, he won't take part in the
    elections. `Levon Ter-Petrosyan has no chances to be a common
    candidate from the opposition, while nomination from the ANC will lead
    to failure.'

    The head of the Regional Research Center, Richard Giragosian, believes
    that participation of both ex-presidents is unlikely: `Ter-Petrosyan
    presents a significant political force, and at the moment he is an
    active player involved into Armenian politics. But I think it would be
    reasonable for Ter-Petrosyan not to participate in the elections
    again.'

    The same view is shared by the deputy director of the institute
    Kavkaz, Sergey Minasian, who says that Ter-Petrosyan is not new: `The
    ANC has lost a big part of its followers; the political field was
    divided between the Republican Party of Armenia and Prosperous
    Armenia. Levon Ter-Petrosyan has always had political intuition. That
    is why he is biding time.'

    Considering huge political experience of Ter-Petrosyan and Kcharyan,
    we should not exclude the other way of developments, moreover, 5
    months are left ahead of the elections. In this sense the recent
    sensational statement by the former aide of Kocharyan, Garnik
    Isagulian, on existence of a secret organization `Mgeri Dur' which
    collects information on Armenian elite is interesting. Isagulian said
    that the organization has the list of all military and political
    activists who have had power, including information on their private
    and social activity. Referring the list, Isagulian stated that since
    1994 about $17 billion were taken away from Armenia.

    The political technologist Armen Badalian says that Isagulian's
    statement should be considered only in the context of coming
    elections.' Of course, nobody will publish damaging information or
    state on its existence for free. Blackmailing elements are clearly
    seen in the statement by the former aide of the president. It is
    difficult to say who stands behind this affair,' the political
    technologist states. He also affirms that Robert Kocharyan might stand
    behind Isagulian.

    One more major political player in the country is the chairman of the
    party Prosperous Armenia, Gagik Tsarukian, who is not in a hurry to
    express his view on the elections. The pro-governmental mass media
    makes confident statements that Tsarukian will support Sargsyan in the
    elections. The leader of PA continues to keep silence. At the moment
    it is difficult to predict PA's plans, but it is impossible to believe
    that such a powerful political force will remain indifferent to the
    elections.

    http://vestnikkavkaza.net/analysis/politics/31879.html




    From: A. Papazian
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