FIRST OMBUDSWOMAN OF ARMENIA CALLS ON ELECTION CAMPAIGN PARTICIPANTS "TO REFRAIN FROM LOW INSTINCTS-BASED STRUGGLE"
Noyan Tapan
Feb 15, 2008
YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 15, NOYAN TAPAN. The National Press Club jointly with
the US National Democratic Institution (NDI) on February 15 finished
the series of social-political discussions, which were held since
November 2007 under Armenia and Elections program. The representatives
of 4 out of the 9 presidential candidates: Artur Baghdasarian, Vazgen
Manukian, Serge Sargsian and Levon Ter-Petrosian, as well as former
and current MPs, experts took part in the final discussion. The subject
was "The Final Message of the Presidential Candidates to Voters".
Appealing to voters to take an active part and vote in accordance
with their conscience, Artashes Avoyan – representative of Orinats
Yerkir Party’s candidate for RA presidency Artur Baghdasarian – also
made an appeal to the authorities, electoral commissions’ members
and empowered persons. He urged the authorities "at least once"
to ensure the holding of free and fair elections and to refrain
from attempts to intimidate and bribe, and he urged the electoral
commissions members not to be bribed and not to falsify, bearing in
mind that the law-envisaged punishment is inevitable.
Shavarsh Kocharian – chairman of the NDP party, representative of
the National Democratic Union’s candidate Vazgen Manukian – attached
great importance to holding free and fair elections and stated that
the political forces supporting their candidate give priority to the
struggle against the prime causes rather than consequences. In his
words, the prime cause of all the negative phenomena in the country
such as the quality of elections, the socioeconomic situation, etc,
is the semi-established wilsfulness so system changes are the number
one problem on the democratization way.
Samvel Nikoyan – secretary of the National Assembly RPA faction,
representative of the Republican Party of Armenia (PRA’s) candidate
Serge Sargsian – expressed an opinion that thanks to the amendments to
the RA Electoral Code, it is impossible to rig elections. With respect
to peculiarities of the pre-election campaign, he said that the current
campaign differs from the previous ones by intolerance and attempts of
some forces to "blacken" their rivals. According to him, there is an
impression that some forces are waiting not for Election Day – February
19 but "they link their task with post-election processes". He assured
those present that "the current authorities have enough determination
to halt inadmissible, non-constitutional post-election processes".
In the opinion of Vahagn Khachatrian – member of "Alternative",
representtaive of the first Armenian president Levon Ter-Petrosian –
unfortunately, the elections will not be free and fair. Exressing his
disagreement with the opinion about the efficiency of the amendments
to the Electoral Code, he warned the electoral commissions’ members
not to falsify and stated that they are ready to defend the votes
given to their candidate – by using all legal methods.
Member of the National Assembly "Heritage" faction, first
Armenian ombudswoman Larisa Alaverdian in her turn appealed to
all the participants of the election campaign to refrain from "low
insticts-based struggle against each other" during the last three days
of the pre-election propaganda. She expressed regret that competition
among the presidential candidates never took place – first of all,
because of those candidates who rejected the invitations to hold
public debates and dialog.
Former MP Tatul Manaserian said that he wants to love and respect
the president of his country and he wouldn’t like to have a president
elected by "a bear’s disservice", adding that "we have failed to find
this repeatedly mentioned bear".