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ARMENIA: CONSTITUTIONAL COURT REFUSES TO INVALIDATE ELECTIONS
EurasiaNet.org, NY
March 15 2013
It was an expected decision and, so, in a way, is the hunger strike
by former presidential candidate Raffi Hovhannisian -- now nearly
five days and counting -- that accompanies it.
Armenia's Constitutional Court, a body not particularly known for
robust independence from the government's executive branch, ruled in
the early evening of March 14 that there are no grounds to support
Hovhannisian's request that the country's February 18 presidential
elections be declared invalid.
The court will not publish its full decision until March 18.
With Serzh Sargsyan already congratulated by foreign governments
and making official visits as Armenia's president-elect, outsiders
might get the impression that the train has already left the station,
and Hovhannisian missed it.
How a hunger strike will change things is unclear.
Hovhannisian has tried the hunger-strike route before, stoically
sitting in Liberty Square for 15 days in 2011 "to bring power back
to the people." The measure brought no tangible result other than to
make the full-figured politician much slimmer.
As the pro-opposition A1Plus.am news site laconically commented in
a blooper, "Note that R. Hovhannisyan is on hunger-strike already
4 years."
This time round, he seems content to sit under a canopy on a bench
in Liberty Square, with a scarf in the colors of the Armenian flag
around his neck, and books and paintings on red-blue-orange blankets
spread out alongside him.
The American-born politician is expected to comment on the Court's
ruling and announce any plans for the future at a 5pm rally today
in Yerevan.
When asked if he would lead his supporters to storm Sargsyan's
residence -- given his current bench-sitting, a curious contrast --
Hovhannisian responded that the "people will not do anything without
me, nor I without them."
Does that mean more hunger strikes? Fellow former presidential
candidate Andrias Ghukasian certainly thinks so. Already an experienced
hunger striker himself, the 42-year-old Ghukasian, whose appeal to
the Constitutional Court was also rejected, said that he might join
Hovhannisian's starvation cause since "I don't see any other way to
save the life of Raffi Hovannisian."
As of March 15, a total of five fellow strikers reportedly have
signed on; the latest, Iranian-Armenian writer Violet Grigoryan,
News.am announced.
Hovhannisian apparently has set his eyes on April 9, the date of
Sargsyan's inauguration, as the make-or-break date for his protest
campaign, declaring that it will occur "over my dead body." But, apart
from the growling of stomachs, little action appears to be going on.
As one Yerevan-based blogger noted on March 10 of Hovhannisian's
Barevolution, "it's still not clear where they're going with this."
http://www.eurasianet.org/node/66696
EurasiaNet.org, NY
March 15 2013
It was an expected decision and, so, in a way, is the hunger strike
by former presidential candidate Raffi Hovhannisian -- now nearly
five days and counting -- that accompanies it.
Armenia's Constitutional Court, a body not particularly known for
robust independence from the government's executive branch, ruled in
the early evening of March 14 that there are no grounds to support
Hovhannisian's request that the country's February 18 presidential
elections be declared invalid.
The court will not publish its full decision until March 18.
With Serzh Sargsyan already congratulated by foreign governments
and making official visits as Armenia's president-elect, outsiders
might get the impression that the train has already left the station,
and Hovhannisian missed it.
How a hunger strike will change things is unclear.
Hovhannisian has tried the hunger-strike route before, stoically
sitting in Liberty Square for 15 days in 2011 "to bring power back
to the people." The measure brought no tangible result other than to
make the full-figured politician much slimmer.
As the pro-opposition A1Plus.am news site laconically commented in
a blooper, "Note that R. Hovhannisyan is on hunger-strike already
4 years."
This time round, he seems content to sit under a canopy on a bench
in Liberty Square, with a scarf in the colors of the Armenian flag
around his neck, and books and paintings on red-blue-orange blankets
spread out alongside him.
The American-born politician is expected to comment on the Court's
ruling and announce any plans for the future at a 5pm rally today
in Yerevan.
When asked if he would lead his supporters to storm Sargsyan's
residence -- given his current bench-sitting, a curious contrast --
Hovhannisian responded that the "people will not do anything without
me, nor I without them."
Does that mean more hunger strikes? Fellow former presidential
candidate Andrias Ghukasian certainly thinks so. Already an experienced
hunger striker himself, the 42-year-old Ghukasian, whose appeal to
the Constitutional Court was also rejected, said that he might join
Hovhannisian's starvation cause since "I don't see any other way to
save the life of Raffi Hovannisian."
As of March 15, a total of five fellow strikers reportedly have
signed on; the latest, Iranian-Armenian writer Violet Grigoryan,
News.am announced.
Hovhannisian apparently has set his eyes on April 9, the date of
Sargsyan's inauguration, as the make-or-break date for his protest
campaign, declaring that it will occur "over my dead body." But, apart
from the growling of stomachs, little action appears to be going on.
As one Yerevan-based blogger noted on March 10 of Hovhannisian's
Barevolution, "it's still not clear where they're going with this."
http://www.eurasianet.org/node/66696