Presidential candidates avoided open meetings, analyst says

Presidential candidates avoided open meetings, analyst says

13:48 – 16.02.13

Political analyst Garik Keryan summed up today, on the last campaign
day, the pre-electoral campaign, saying the candidates avoided open
meetings, the campaign was conducted in halls and on TV.

`Except of few cases Serzh Sargsyan conducted his meetings in closed
halls, that was full of bureaucratic mass brought by municipal bodies.
The others did not have big mass events, which was not good,’ the
analyst said.

Keryan said these presidential elections yielded to the previous ones
with their degree of politicization agreed with non participation of
the main political forces of the country.

The analyst said the important election event – political debates –
did not take place in Armenia like it happens in developed countries.
`Television debates are widely spread in developed countries giving
the voters an opportunity to orient,’ he said.

The positive thing during the campaign, he said is that it passed in
free atmosphere, with no restrictions of the candidates’ activities.

`I have not noticed restrictions, the mass media was free, there was
no black PR, no personal offences. No pressures were exerted in the
activities of the candidates, while during previous ones such cases
were registered,’ he said.

The analyst divided the nominated candidates, including Aram
Harutyunyan who withdrew his candidacy, into three groups. The first
one included Serzh Sargsyan, Raffi Hovhannisian, Hrant Bagratyan who
had a certain program, political team and political biography with
their campaign being geographically more extended. The second group
included Arman Melikyan, Aram Harutyunyan and Vardan Sedrakyan who
carried out passive TV campaign.

The analyst classified Paruyr Hayrikyan in both first and second
groups. `He seemed to be able to equally conduct his campaign in the
first group but unfortunately he dropped to the second one and did not
manage to fully carry out the campaign,’ he said. The analyst
separated lonely wolf Andrias Ghukasyan with his hunger-striking
action.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress