Decision 2013: `Day of Silence’ descends on Armenia ahead of presidential ballot
VOTE 2013 | 16.02.13 | 19:37
By SUREN MUSAYELYAN
ArmeniaNow Deputy Editor
The last election rhetoric has been fading away, giving way to what is
going to be observed as a Day of Silence on Sunday to give voting-age
Armenians some time to digest the multitude of pledges before going to
the polls and casting their ballots in favor of one of the seven
candidates hoping to become their president.
The top contenders, including incumbent president Serzh Sargsyan and
his main challengers – Heritage Party leader Raffi Hovannisian and
former Prime Minister Hrant Bagratyan – staged their final campaign
rallies and events on the last days of the four-week campaign, calling
on their supporters for one last time to vote for their programs and
the future of Armenia.
The three were the candidates who talked more about their programs
during the electioneering period that was described by some
international monitors as `low-key’ and with `limited visibility’.
Sargsyan toured around the country, meeting constituencies and calling
on the nation to support his `Towards a Secure Armenia’ program, while
Hovannisian opted for a more personal approach, doing something that
no candidate in previous Armenian elections has done.
On his frequent campaign outings in Yerevan and other towns and rural
communities across Armenia the United States-born politician randomly
greeted people, shaking hands with them and talking to them in the
streets, shops and other public places, thus spreading his five-step
plan and vision.
Bagratyan, another opposition figure in the campaign, also made a few
trips to the provinces, holding meetings with people in towns and
rural communities to present his 100-step program that he says is the
only economically sound plan to rebuild the nation.
The campaign was marred by an assassination attempt against another
opposition contender, Paruyr Hayrikyan. The Soviet-era dissident
survived a shooting attack on January 31 and had to stay in hospital,
recovering from a gunshot wound, through most of the rest of the
campaign. Despite considering his ailment to be an `insurmountable
obstacle’ to his campaign, Hayrikyan eventually decided not to ask the
Constitutional Court to postpone the ballot for two weeks – something
that he was eligible to do under the law. He later said he had chosen
not to play into the hands of the `terrorists’ whose primary aim in
shooting him, he said, was to disrupt the electoral process in
Armenia. (The candidate’s hesitation and some `irrational’ moves,
however, led critics to suspect a deal with the government).
Another reason cited by Hayrikyan was to save an election rival,
Andrias Ghukasyan, the trouble of going through an additional two
weeks of hunger strike which he said would have killed the 42-year-old
political analyst.
Ghukasyan, who runs a private radio station in Yerevan, embarked on an
open-ended hunger strike at the start of the campaign on January 21,
staging his action just outside the National Academy of Sciences
building in the city center under a sign that read: `Stop Fake
Elections’. The candidate, who is known for his previous civic
activism, demanded that the Central Election Commission repeal the
electoral registration of incumbent President Sargsyan and that
international observers boycott the Armenian election. Despite
experiencing some health problems during the third week of his hunger
strike, the candidate refused to give it up and go to hospital, nor
did he follow the example of another little-known candidate, Aram
Harutyunyan, who formally withdrew his nomination on February 8.
The two other candidates whose names will appear on the ballot paper
on Monday conducted mostly low-key campaigns or no campaigns at all.
Arman Melikyan, who formerly served as Karabakh’s foreign minister,
has, in his own words, pushed for a legitimate election putting
emphasis on the accuracy of voter lists, declaring that he won’t go to
the polls on February 18, nor will he recognize the outcome of the
ballot.
Another maverick candidate, Vardan Sedrakyan, who had declared himself
to be an expert on Armenian epic poetry well before the start of the
campaign, spent most of the time giving press conferences and
interviews, expressing at times controversial views on domestic and
foreign policy matters, and only occasionally appearing in public. In
the last few days of the campaign the candidate found himself on the
receiving end of lingering suspicions of his having some kind of
involvement in the attack on Hayrikyan as the two suspects arrested by
the National Security Service turned out to be individuals he had
hired to do some house renovation work for him in the past.
The Armenian presidential election is held according to a
double-ballot system with a possibility of a runoff if none of the
candidates manages to poll more than 50 percent of the vote the first
time around. Such a runoff is held between the top two finishers two
weeks after the first ballot.
Authorities estimate the number of eligible voters in Armenia at
around 2.5 million, admittedly including between 500,000 and 700,000
citizens who are currently outside Armenia and, in accordance with the
country’s current legislation, are not eligible to vote.
The highest voter turnouts observed in Armenian presidential elections
were during the first and last post-independence ballots – in 1991 and
2008, when about 70 percent went to the polls. Reported turnout
figures during the three presidential polls in-between fluctuated
between 50 and 65 percent.
A total of 1,988 polling stations will be open across Armenia from
8.00 am to 8.00 pm on February 18 for eligible voters to come and cast
their ballots. The Central Election Commission (CEC) is expected to
update turnout figures several times during the day, with early
results of the vote due the next morning. The preliminary report of
the CEC () on the ballot is due within 22 hours after
polling stations close – i.e. 6 pm on February 19. The final results
of the presidential election are to be announced on February 25.
A number of international and local organizations will be monitoring
the Monday vote, with the largest international mission, OSCE/ODIHR,
deploying 250 short-term observers on Election Day to join 13 election
experts and 24 long-term observers working in Armenia during the
campaign.
The mission is due to come up with a report evaluating the compliance
of the Armenian election with the nation’s commitments to democracy
and international standards of holding elections – an assessment that
serves as a guideline for many governments and institutions in the
world.
From: Baghdasarian
www.elections.am