ARMENIAN NATIONAL UNITY PARTY NOMINATES PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE

Mediamax Agency, Armenia
Nov 27 2007

Yerevan, 27 November: The political board of the National Unity Party
passed a unanimous decision today to nominate Artashes Geghamyan for
president [in the 2008 election].

Speaking at a news conference held in Yerevan today, Geghamyan said
that "the National Unity party wants to protect the Armenian people
from the clash between the old and new regimes".

Geghamyan said ex-President Levon Ter-Petrosyan showed "excessive
ambitions" during his consultations with the opposition leaders,
and then decided to begin his election campaign. Commenting on
Ter-Petrosyan’s proposal to unite the efforts against the current
regime, Geghamyan said that he "did not suffer amnesia and still
remembers the 1990s". He called on Ter-Petrosyan "not to engage in
plagiarism by presenting National Unity party ideas to people as his
own, and behave properly towards Artashes Geghamyan".

Commenting on media reports, Geghamyan admitted that he had met
Armenian Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan and said that an agreement
to apply maximum efforts for maintaining stability in the country
was reached.