Closer to Presidential elections of RA certain political forces are trying to concentrate their efforts to exclude illegitimate presidential elections on February 19 2008.
Ter-Petrosyan’s co-thinkers have established a new public movement the “Legitimate President 2008”, which unites Lyudmila Sargsyan, chairwoman of the “Social-Democratic Hnchak Party” (SDHP), Garnik Margaryan, Chairman of “Fatherland and Honor” party and Gurgen Yeghiazaryan, former Deputy Minister of the National Security Service officially announced about the establishment of the movement. In the words of Lyudmila Sargsyan, another Legitimate President-2008 leader, the movement will also launch a public relations campaign aimed at persuading people not to sell their votes to pro-government candidates. She said other opposition candidates should also join the new grouping if they are interested in a clean vote. “If they want to get elected, they have to join us because the other camp shows no desire to hold a free and fair election,” Sargsyan told a news conference. By the way, during the last Parliamentary elections Yeghiazaryan was in the proportional list of the New Times Party. But now he is endorsing Levon Ter-Petrosyan. Also the Legitimate President 2008 movement is the evident continuation of the Anti-Criminal movement. Margaryan also endorses Ter-Petrosyan. “The objective of the “Legitimate President 2008” movement is to stimulate the society, to establish democratic and legal authorities to stop Armenia’s colonization process and make Armenia a truly independent state”, said Mrs Sargsyan. Garnik Margaryan, Chairman of “Fatherland and Honor” party confirmed that the new movement was similar to “Anti-criminal Movement” and could be considered its continuation. “This process began in 2003, when various powers, movements and NGOs were formed in the RA aimed at releasing Armenia from evil. The evil is the one – none legitimate authorities”, said Mr Margaryan. He considers that if the criminal authorities are reproduced in 2008, then nothing will stop this evil. Garnik Margaryan considers 2005 Referendum on the Constitutional amendments the first stage for the completion of the criminal authorities, the second stage – 2007 parliamentary elections and the third stage will be the 2008 presidential elections. “To prevent the third stage we have initiated the “Legitimate President 2008 Movement”. The organizers of the movement are confirmed that only Levon Ter-Petrosyan may release the country from the robbers. Yesterday we tried to find out what other forces are going to unite their efforts on behalf of free and fair elections. It seems that the perspective of having a legitimate president is not bad at all and every presidential candidate should have been interested in that movement. But in fact it is not like that. The political parties are not rushing to express their opinion about the movement. For example, the New Times Party chairman Aram Karapetyan responded that he will advert to those issues and others during the press conference to be held today and doesn’t wish to say anything before that. The Legal State Office wasn’t answering phone calls at all. Raffi Hovhannisian is going to clarify his strategy for the upcoming presidential elections during his party board meeting. As of Artashes Geghamyan Lyudmila Sargsyan announced, “If the person has considered himself an oppositionist for 5-6 years and by attacking has been trying to gain dividends and now praises the government there can only be one opinion about him – an amoral behavior.” When speaking of Kocharyan’s reaction after the last speech of Ter-Petrosyan, Yeghiazaryan has tried to speak in an equivalent language so that the government, which has some difficulties in understanding Armenian, would understand what he means. Yeghiazaryan reminded that Geghamyan has served as a dhol (Armenian musical instrument) for President Kocharyan. “Dhol is a normal musical instrument but it may rip when you hit it too hard. Thus, one can use such instruments not for very long time. After awhile it will be needed to change those and it’s recommended to throw those away after they get worn out.” Let’s change the dhol topic and speak about more serious issues. For example, through what means the initiators of the Legitimate President 2008 Movement are going to reach their goals? the new opposition movement will stage rallies in a bid to force Sargsyan to quit as prime minister. He said it will also take actions aimed at preventing possible vote rigging. In particular, Armenians will be urged to “rise up” and “break the hand attempting to rig” the election, he added. RPA leaders say the Armenian government is committed to ensuring the freedom and fairness of the presidential ballot. They point to its conduct of the May elections which was praised by Western observers. Although you can guess yourselves how these means can conduce to having a legitimate president.