PAQRADOUNIAN FIRST WIN IN 2009 PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS
Hussein Assi
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09/04/2009
And Hagop Paqradounian is the first member of the 2009 parliament!
Indeed, with a little more than eight weeks left until the June
parliamentary elections, a winner has already been declared, as Tashnaq
MP Hagop Paqradounian was elected again in the North Metn as the first
MP in the 2009 parliament. Pakradounian’s uncontested victory came
after fellow Tashnaq member Nazareth Sabounjian withdrew his candidacy.
Paqradounian’s early and uncontested victory raised, however, questions
about the Armenian participation in the Metn district in the following
parliamentary elections, given that the Tashnag party is committed to
an electoral and political alliance with the Free Patriotic Movement
all over Lebanon.
But Paqradounian told Al-Manar on Thursday that his victory would
not influence negatively the Armenian bloc’s participation in the
elections. He stressed that all the bloc’s supporters would vote for
the Change and Reform list in the Metn as well as MP Michel Murr just
like if he was still a candidate.
For his part, Change and Reform MP Nabil Nicolas recalled that
Armenians voted for his colleague MP Kamil Khoury in the 2007
by-elections when there were no Armenians competing.