VAZGEN MANUKYAN WILL BE NOMINATED
Lragir, Armenia
Sept 27 2007
The leader of the National Democratic Party Vazgen Manukyan stated
September 27 at the Pakagits press club to run in the presidential
election, and at the moment he is not considering supporting another
presidential candidate. Vazgen Manukyan even said there are some
opposition candidates whom he would never support. As to the nomination
of the first president, the leader of the NDU declined to comment. He
said we sometimes can be nostalgic but it is better to look ahead to
the future.
In this case, how is the NDU leader running in the future president’s
election, with what new resource which would more or less allow
him and the opposition in general to hope for victory, considering
that the existing resource has led to failure before? According to
him, if Armenia were a common democratic country, it would take a
candidate a platform and a team to struggle for votes, meanwhile in
Armenia the financial and administrative resources work, i.e. bribe
and intimidation. "In the cases when people see there are going to
be essential changes in life, in the country, they become heroes,
and the administrative resource does not work. People reject fraud,
bribes, struggle occurs," Vazgen Manukyan says.
According to him, in order to have this kind of relations we need a
candidate, an idea and a team which would lead a national movement.
"A common candidate? Maybe. There can be five or six candidates,
but if three or four candidates join, the others will become secondary.
In Armenia there are no conditions yet. If not, if five or six
candidates run in the election, this kind of elections does not
interest me," says the leader of the NDU. He says he is not a
20-year-old to run in the election, get a few votes and take pride
in it.
"I am going to run in the election to win, and if there is no way to
win, it is pointless to participate in a game by which you are going
to legitimize something bad. There is uncertainty over everything,"
Vazgen Manukyan says, adding that there has been no such uncertainty
before the presidential elections. Vazgen Manukyan says although
many think little time is left until the presidential election,
nevertheless this period is enough for a breakthrough in the political
developments. He gave the example of 1998 when a new president was
to be elected after the resignation of Levon Ter-Petrosyan, within
40 days in accordance with the law, and over that time the political
situation changed essentially for a few times. Vazgen Manukyan says
he means that after Ter-Petrosyan’s resignation he was the favorite,
then the factor of Karen Demirchyan emerged, then the intrigue of the
second round. It allows the leader of the NDU to state that if there
were so many changes within 40 days, it is possible to hold even two
presidential elections in a few months.