Former Armenian President Emerges as Contender
Former president emerges as serious contender in country’s upcoming presidential poll.
Former Armenian President Emerges as Contender
Former president emerges as serious contender in country’s upcoming presidential poll.
Armenia’s election campaign, which officially began on January 21, is proving far livelier than most people anticipated.
A few months ago, Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian was regarded as the only feasible candidate to replace Robert Kocharian as president of the country after Armenians go to the polls on February 19.
However, with the return of former president Levon Ter-Petrosian to the political stage, Sarkisian now faces a serious rival.
“If it weren’t for Ter-Petrosian’s political comeback, the election campaign would be purely mechanical with a predetermined result,” said Alexander Iskandarian, director of the Caucasus Media Institute in Yerevan.
One of nine candidates contesting the poll, the former president is presenting himself as the only real alternative to the current governing elite.
“I bear responsibility for [President] Robert Kocharian’s and Serzh Sarkisian coming to power, and I feel I must apologise to the nation,” said Ter-Petrosian, in reference to his former proteges.
In an interview with a Russian newspaper, he said the Armenian government had not responded to his accusations of abuse of power and corruption, and this, he said, proved they were true.
Answering criticism over his performance during his own time in office from 1991 to 1998, Ter-Petrosian said that in those years, the country was suffering problems associated with the post-Soviet transition and the war over Karabakh.
He accused his successors of derailing his own efforts to resolve the Karabakh conflict, and said the peace plan now under consideration was the same step-by-step scheme developed when he was in power, the only new element being a plan for a referendum on the status of Karabakh.
While Ter-Petrosian does not have the backing of the entire opposition, he has won the support of a number of parties. As well as his own Armenian National Movement, he has secured the backing of Stepan Demirchian of the People’s Party - Kocharian’s main challenger in the last presidential election, held in 2003 - and former prime minister Aram Sarkisian, who heads the Republic Party.
Even before the elections campaign began, the opposition complained that the government was using its resources to back its preferred candidate, Sarkisian. More than 1,500 Sarkisian campaign offices have been set up across Armenia, and posters of him are everywhere, even decorating government buildings in breach of the law.
Heghine Bisharian, deputy chairman of the opposition Orinats Yerkir party, alleged that local government leaders and school and hospital officials, had been instructed to secure a minimum of 70 per cent of the vote for Sarkisian.
“We have evidence that some local heads have been trying to use their powers to drum up support for the official candidate,” said one of the leaders of the Dashaktsutiun party Armen Rustamian. Although Dashnaktsutiun supports the government, it is fielding its own candidate in the election.
The opposition is especially unhappy about unbalanced coverage in the electronic media.
Sarkisian receives a great deal of favourable coverage, with reports about his work as prime minister as well as his campaign. Public Television broadcast almost the whole of a speech he made at a meeting in Yerevan’s Erebuni district.
Heghine Bisharian, deputy chairman of the opposition Orinats Yerkir party, said Armenian television was now off-limits to government critics. She told IWPR that commercial TV channels had refused to sell airtime to former speaker Artur Baghdasarian, who leads the Orinats Yerkir party.
“I don’t understand why private channels are passing up a legal opportunity to earn money,” said Bisharian.
However, the head of Armenian Public Television and Radio, Aleksan Harutiunian, rejected allegations of biased coverage, saying that his channel reports on all the candidates.
One problem is that while the news programmes on Public Television and other channels do report on the various candidates, the general tone of the coverage shows the opposition in a negative light.
In a bid to make up for his lack of positive coverage, Ter-Petrosian’s team has begun to record his speeches on CD and hand out the discs at meetings. According to Ter-Petrosian himself, this “information revolution” has already reached half a million people and is continuing to win him new supporters.
Stepan Safarian of Zharangutiun - or Heritage - a party that supports neither of the two leading candidates, said that Ter-Petrosian’s appeal was growing in the course of the campaign. By contrast, “the persistent advertising of Serzh Sarkisian by the electronic media only hurts his ratings”, he said.
Political analyst Stepan Grigorian believes that although Sarkisian still has a good chance of becoming president, he may lose legitimacy through the manner in which he is elected.
It is a keen matter of debate whether the election will run to a second round, which would happen if none of the candidates got 50 per cent of the vote.
Galust Sahakian, deputy head of the Republican Party, confidently predicted that Sarkisian would score over 65 per cent in the first round. Ter-Petrosian, meanwhile, is also saying he will win the first round.
Some analysts say a second round is inevitable because of the high number of candidates, while others say that the opposition vote will be split many ways, which will give the advantage to Sarkisian.
Opposition parties are already expressing fears that the authorities will try to rig the election.
“Any attempts to falsify the results will be detrimental to the falsifiers themselves,” said Aram Manukian of the Armenian National Movement.
Sahakian insists it is in his candidate’s interest to have a democratic election. “Otherwise, both the winning candidate and his team will be damaged,” he said.
Rita Karapetian is a correspondent for Noyan Topan news agency in Yerevan.
A few months ago, Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian was regarded as the only feasible candidate to replace Robert Kocharian as president of the country after Armenians go to the polls on February 19.
However, with the return of former president Levon Ter-Petrosian to the political stage, Sarkisian now faces a serious rival.
“If it weren’t for Ter-Petrosian’s political comeback, the election campaign would be purely mechanical with a predetermined result,” said Alexander Iskandarian, director of the Caucasus Media Institute in Yerevan.
One of nine candidates contesting the poll, the former president is presenting himself as the only real alternative to the current governing elite.
“I bear responsibility for [President] Robert Kocharian’s and Serzh Sarkisian coming to power, and I feel I must apologise to the nation,” said Ter-Petrosian, in reference to his former proteges.
In an interview with a Russian newspaper, he said the Armenian government had not responded to his accusations of abuse of power and corruption, and this, he said, proved they were true.
Answering criticism over his performance during his own time in office from 1991 to 1998, Ter-Petrosian said that in those years, the country was suffering problems associated with the post-Soviet transition and the war over Karabakh.
He accused his successors of derailing his own efforts to resolve the Karabakh conflict, and said the peace plan now under consideration was the same step-by-step scheme developed when he was in power, the only new element being a plan for a referendum on the status of Karabakh.
While Ter-Petrosian does not have the backing of the entire opposition, he has won the support of a number of parties. As well as his own Armenian National Movement, he has secured the backing of Stepan Demirchian of the People’s Party - Kocharian’s main challenger in the last presidential election, held in 2003 - and former prime minister Aram Sarkisian, who heads the Republic Party.
Even before the elections campaign began, the opposition complained that the government was using its resources to back its preferred candidate, Sarkisian. More than 1,500 Sarkisian campaign offices have been set up across Armenia, and posters of him are everywhere, even decorating government buildings in breach of the law.
Heghine Bisharian, deputy chairman of the opposition Orinats Yerkir party, alleged that local government leaders and school and hospital officials, had been instructed to secure a minimum of 70 per cent of the vote for Sarkisian.
“We have evidence that some local heads have been trying to use their powers to drum up support for the official candidate,” said one of the leaders of the Dashaktsutiun party Armen Rustamian. Although Dashnaktsutiun supports the government, it is fielding its own candidate in the election.
The opposition is especially unhappy about unbalanced coverage in the electronic media.
Sarkisian receives a great deal of favourable coverage, with reports about his work as prime minister as well as his campaign. Public Television broadcast almost the whole of a speech he made at a meeting in Yerevan’s Erebuni district.
Heghine Bisharian, deputy chairman of the opposition Orinats Yerkir party, said Armenian television was now off-limits to government critics. She told IWPR that commercial TV channels had refused to sell airtime to former speaker Artur Baghdasarian, who leads the Orinats Yerkir party.
“I don’t understand why private channels are passing up a legal opportunity to earn money,” said Bisharian.
However, the head of Armenian Public Television and Radio, Aleksan Harutiunian, rejected allegations of biased coverage, saying that his channel reports on all the candidates.
One problem is that while the news programmes on Public Television and other channels do report on the various candidates, the general tone of the coverage shows the opposition in a negative light.
In a bid to make up for his lack of positive coverage, Ter-Petrosian’s team has begun to record his speeches on CD and hand out the discs at meetings. According to Ter-Petrosian himself, this “information revolution” has already reached half a million people and is continuing to win him new supporters.
Stepan Safarian of Zharangutiun - or Heritage - a party that supports neither of the two leading candidates, said that Ter-Petrosian’s appeal was growing in the course of the campaign. By contrast, “the persistent advertising of Serzh Sarkisian by the electronic media only hurts his ratings”, he said.
Political analyst Stepan Grigorian believes that although Sarkisian still has a good chance of becoming president, he may lose legitimacy through the manner in which he is elected.
It is a keen matter of debate whether the election will run to a second round, which would happen if none of the candidates got 50 per cent of the vote.
Galust Sahakian, deputy head of the Republican Party, confidently predicted that Sarkisian would score over 65 per cent in the first round. Ter-Petrosian, meanwhile, is also saying he will win the first round.
Some analysts say a second round is inevitable because of the high number of candidates, while others say that the opposition vote will be split many ways, which will give the advantage to Sarkisian.
Opposition parties are already expressing fears that the authorities will try to rig the election.
“Any attempts to falsify the results will be detrimental to the falsifiers themselves,” said Aram Manukian of the Armenian National Movement.
Sahakian insists it is in his candidate’s interest to have a democratic election. “Otherwise, both the winning candidate and his team will be damaged,” he said.
Rita Karapetian is a correspondent for Noyan Topan news agency in Yerevan.
