FORMER ARMENIAN PRESIDENT JOINS RACE FOR PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS IN 2008
by Grace Annan
Global Insight
October 29, 2007
On 26 October, the former president of Armenia, Lev Ter-Petrossian,
announced his candidature for the presidential elections in February
2008. Ter-Petrossian criticised the government’s record in the fight
against corruption, stating that the leadership was corrupt and
based on a "mafia-style regime" according to Agence France-Presse
(AFP). He further advocated a more docile stance towards neighbouring
Azerbaijan, with which relations are strained over the Nagorno-Karabakh
dispute. The decision to run for the presidency has brought some
competition into the race, which increasingly looked like a one-sided
affair in favour of the presidential appointee, the current Prime
Minister Serzh Sarkisian. Current president Robert Kocharian is taking
Ter-Petrossian’s candidacy seriously, as his reaction shows: Kocharian
promised a tough fight in which he would remind the electorate of
Ter-Petrossian’s "harsh" economic policy.
Significance:Armenia currently boasts an economic growth rate of
10% but its main obstacles, high levels of bureaucracy, wide-scale
corruption and poor infrastructure, as well as the embargo by
Turkey and Azerbaijan taint this record somewhat. Ter-Petrossian’s
announcement certainly brings some colour into the choice the
electorate has on 12 February 2008, and it will certainly annoy the
current main opposition candidate Artur Baghdasarian (see Armenia: 2
October 2007: ). Yet, his victory is far from a foregone conclusion
given the increasingly consolidated power in the hands of the
president, and the government’s capacity to filter election results in
their favour. Further, Ter-Petrossian had a somewhat mixed presidency
(1991-1998), and his economic policy and stance on Nagorno-Karabakh
brought about his downfall and he was succeeded by the then-Prime
Minister Kocharian. The current spat between Ter-Petrossian and
Kocharian is therefore a clash of policy-making.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
Disclaimer: This article was contributed and translated into English by Emil Lazarian. While we strive for quality, the views and accuracy of the content remain the responsibility of the contributor. Please verify all facts independently before reposting or citing.
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