ARMENIA: CANDIDATE CONTROVERSY – A SIGN OF ELECTION TENSION AHEAD?
Marianna Grigoryan and Gayane Lazarian
EurasiaNet, NY
April 11 2007
Armenia’s parliamentary election campaign has formally kicked off.
Officials insist that the election will be free and fair. Yet the
election season already has become engulfed in controversy after a
local court barred two candidates from running in Echmiadzin, the
seat of the Armenian Apostolic Church.
The campaign season officially opened April 8. The district court
ruling two days later disqualified two candidates — Echmiadzin’s
incumbent MP, Hakob Hakobian, along with a non-partisan candidate,
Susanna Harutiunian. The court ruled in both cases that signatures
on registration petitions were forged.
The case, however, touches on more than routine questions of candidate
registration. Both Hakobian, a member of the ruling Republican
Party of Armenia, and Harutiunian allege the court ruling is part
of an overall campaign of intimidation waged by Gen. Seyran Saroian,
a retired commander of the Fourth Army Corps who served under former
Defense Minister Serzh Sarkisian, Armenia’s newly named prime minister
and the acting Republican Party leader. [For background see the Eurasia
Insight archive]. Saroian is the Republican Party’s official nominee
for the Echmiadzin seat.
Hakobian and Harutiunian maintain that Saroian is also responsible for
a mysterious shooting and fire that targeted them both. On April 8,
unidentified individuals shot at a car in which Hakobian was sitting
as it was parked outside a local restaurant. Hours later, a fire
allegedly broke out in a Harutiunian-owned factory, which houses her
campaign headquarters. Local police are investigating both incidents.
Republican Party officials have roundly denied the charges that the
organization is attempting to push Hakobian and Harutiunian out of
the race in favor of Saroian. Galust Sahakian, head of the Republican
Party’s parliamentary faction, told reporters on April 11 that the
court decision to disqualify Hakobian and Harutiunian is "final" and
"not subject to political evaluations."
"I am for solutions without pressure [being brought]," he said of
the situation in Echmiadzin.
A spokesman at Saroian’s election headquarters in Echmiadzin, a town
about 20 kilometers outside of Yerevan, insisted that the Republican
Party’s candidate had nothing to do with either the shooting or the
fire. "Those were provocational steps. They simply feel that they will
lose in the elections and are in a panic now," Hakob Martuni said,
referring to Hakobian and Harutiunian. "They themselves staged the
shooting and arson attacks."
Hakobian and Harutiunian, along with their respective supporters,
scoff at the notion that the incidents were staged. "Naturally, it was
not extraterrestrials who organized all that, but it was done with
a clear purpose in mind — to eliminate Hakob Hakobian and Susanna
Harutiunian from the election struggle," said Hakobian’s campaign
manager, Karlen Khachikian.
"If these two strong candidates are eliminated from the field,
even with a turnout of 30 percent Saroian will win the elections,
which is impossible otherwise," he said prior to the court ruling.
Harutiunian told EurasiaNet that she believes the fire was a warning
sign. "Seyran’s men have been constantly intimidating me, making
different proposals for me to drop out of the race," Harutiunian
claimed.
Hakobian’s campaign manager alleged that so-called "administrative
resources" are being brought to bear on his candidate. The homes and
offices of supporters were subjected to police searches after the
April 8 shooting incident, Khachikian told EurasiaNet. Local police
have declined to comment on the investigation.
Hakobian and Harutiunian assert that the district court refused to
subpoena witnesses who could have proven that petition signatures were
valid. The suit to have the two disqualified was brought by another
man named Hakob Hakobian, who is also a member of the Republican
Party and also a candidate for parliament. The pair maintains that
the second Hakobian is in the campaign field solely to confuse voters.
To date, the government has not responded officially to developments
in Echmiadzin. But pro-government media outlets, such as AR TV,
have characterized Hakobian and Harutiunian as "vote-riggers."
On April 10, observers from the Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human
Rights (OSCE/ODIHR) met with Hakobian, the incumbent MP, and stated
that they would include the situation in Echmiadzin in the OSCE
election observers’ final reports, OSCE/ODIHR Observation Mission
media analyst Ivan Godorski told journalists.
The OSCE has never recognized any of Armenia’s previous parliamentary
votes in the post-Soviet era as free and fair. The government,
including Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian, has stressed that it wants
this election to be different. Armenia’s official campaign period
ends on May 10, two days before the elections. Twenty-four political
parties and one bloc are contesting 90 seats on proportional party
lists, while 134 candidates are vying for 41 first-past-the-post seats.
Editor’s Note: Marianna Grigoryan and Gayane Lazarian are reporters
for the ArmeniaNow Online weekly in Yerevan.