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VETERAN POLITICIAN DISAPPOINTED WITH ELECTIONS, QUITTING POLITICS
http://armenianow.com/news/politics/44517/armenia_veteran_politician_tigran_karapetyan
POLITICS | 18.03.13 | 14:07
A veteran Armenian politician and former media mogul is quitting
politics over what he has described as disappointment with the process.
Speaking at a press conference on Monday, Tigran Karapetyan said
his People's Party will not be contesting the May local elections
in Yerevan.
Karapetyan, 67, moved to Armenia from Russia in 2001 to set up a
media holding, ALM, only to see it controversially closed a decade
later. In the meantime, he unsuccessfully contested several elections
of various levels, including parliamentary and municipal elections
and a presidential race in 2008.
In explaining his decision to quit Karapetyan said he was disappointed
with the political process, in particular with how elections are held
in Armenia.
Karapetyan did not contest the parliamentary and presidential
elections in 2012 and 2013. In the 2007 legislative polls he claimed
the authorities had prevented his party from clearing the five-percent
threshold needed to enter the National Assembly to allow the Heritage
Party to get into the legislature instead.
Karapetyan and his People's Party staged a series of protests in
Yerevan in January-February 2011 after ALM Holding lost a frequency
in a tender administered by a government-appointed commission.
Critics often accused ALM Holding of producing low-quality television
shows, yet the company also had a considerable number of supporters
mainly among lower classes tuning in to Karapetyan's weekly political
shows with a rare opportunity in the 2000s of asking questions and
raising issues live.
http://armenianow.com/news/politics/44517/armenia_veteran_politician_tigran_karapetyan
POLITICS | 18.03.13 | 14:07
A veteran Armenian politician and former media mogul is quitting
politics over what he has described as disappointment with the process.
Speaking at a press conference on Monday, Tigran Karapetyan said
his People's Party will not be contesting the May local elections
in Yerevan.
Karapetyan, 67, moved to Armenia from Russia in 2001 to set up a
media holding, ALM, only to see it controversially closed a decade
later. In the meantime, he unsuccessfully contested several elections
of various levels, including parliamentary and municipal elections
and a presidential race in 2008.
In explaining his decision to quit Karapetyan said he was disappointed
with the political process, in particular with how elections are held
in Armenia.
Karapetyan did not contest the parliamentary and presidential
elections in 2012 and 2013. In the 2007 legislative polls he claimed
the authorities had prevented his party from clearing the five-percent
threshold needed to enter the National Assembly to allow the Heritage
Party to get into the legislature instead.
Karapetyan and his People's Party staged a series of protests in
Yerevan in January-February 2011 after ALM Holding lost a frequency
in a tender administered by a government-appointed commission.
Critics often accused ALM Holding of producing low-quality television
shows, yet the company also had a considerable number of supporters
mainly among lower classes tuning in to Karapetyan's weekly political
shows with a rare opportunity in the 2000s of asking questions and
raising issues live.