No de jure boycott of presidential election in Armenia – expert
No political force is de jure boycotting the 2013 presidential election in Armenia because, besides the incumbent president, a number of other presidential candidates have been registered, the political engineer Armen Badalyan told Tert.am.
“There is a political boycott, however, chiefly by society because society has come to realize that it is not actually involved in forming Armenia’s authorities. It used to struggle, but it is not doing so now. As regards influential political forces, it is common knowledge that Armenia’s influential forces are the Republican Party of Armenia, Prosperous Armenia Party and, to an extent, the opposition bloc Armenian National Congress. The Armenian Revolutionary Federation Dashnaktsutyun (ARF-D), Heritage party and Freedom party, all of which are much weaker. And now, one of them - the two strong forces and one relatively weak – has announced its participation, while the two others have stated they are not participating,” Mr Badalyan said.
He explained the geopolitical reason for that. “The West demanded that Armenia’s authorities hold competitive elections and win them and promised to turn a blind eye to frauds in exchange. I am sure that election frauds will be practiced, which was the case during the parliamentary elections, which turned into a large-scale financial event. The same was during the by-elections. The West remained silent both times and will do so after the incumbent president gains ‘a decisive’ victory,” the expert said.
Both the PAP and ANC realized this and refused to participate in the presidential election and executed a tactical order by not allowing the incumbent president to confirm his political legitimacy. “They have just stripped Serzh Sargsyan of political legitimacy. One thing is when the incumbent president defeats the PAP or the ANC, quite another thing when he defeats an expert in epos,” Mr Badalyan said.
As regards the fact that the list of candidates also includes Chairman of the Heritage party Raffi Hovannisian, and Chairman of the Freedom party Hrant Bagratyan - the former plans to unite the opposition forces, the latter, bearers of liberal ideas – the expert said: “Do not let us forget that Hrant Bagratyan is only chairman of a party that is part of the ANC, while Raffi Hovannisian has only two members in Armenia’s parliament. Ambitions are one thing, real influence is quite another thing. Especially so Hrant Bagraryan has no intention to win, but is just trying to resolve some personal problems.”
By “the expert in epos” Mr Badalyan means the whole process and all the candidates, including Raffi Hovanissian and Hrant Bagratyan. According to him, the presidential election is over in Armenia even before it has begun, and “we will have a president that defeats an expos expert, with all the ensuing consequences.”
As to whether the participation of the ANC leader and ARF-D would play into the authorities’ hands, Mr Badalyan said: “It is first of all desirable that the PAP nominate its candidate. Or if it does not, an ANC candidate could. I would not say the same of the ARF-D because they are not so influential, but it could have been the last resort.”
As to whether Armenia’s ruling party “breathed a sigh of relief” after the PAP leader announced his decision, the expert said: “I doubt that those who realized what had happened breathed a sigh of relief. Those who did not realize did.”
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