On Saturday the political board and central office of the Armenian National Movement organized a session, as a result of which a decision was adopted to nominate first president Levon Ter-Petrosyan in the first place of the ANC proportional lists during the upcoming mayoral election in Yerevan. The mentioned news surprised the coalition powers and they are confused. It is worth mentioning that the second place in the ANC proportional list is given to PPA president Stepan Demirchyan.
The coalition MPs are trying to hide their confusion and concerns about the opposition’s decision to run for the mayoral elections with such strong candidate. Even there are rumors that the RPA may replace their candidate and nominate someone else instead of Gagik Beglaryan. As well as rumors say that the RPA and PA may run for the mayoral elections with one joint list of candidates. According to our information, the other coalition parties, the ARF and LS, will participate in the mayoral elections with separate lists. The RPA and PA officials don’t want to involve the other coalition partners because they believe the mentioned parties don’t have large constituency in Yerevan and are not dangerous. The problem is that if the coalition runs for the mayoral elections jointly, after winning they will have to equally distribute the positions of community heads, thus if they run with separate lists, it is possible that the ARF and LS may not overcome the barrier of 7% and get positions.
We asked RPA deputy chairperson Galust Sahakyan whether the opposition’s decision to nominate Levon Ter-Petrosyan for mayor may change their decision or the situation. “I don’t think that we may discuss such possibility. The RPA list has already been formed and we will submit it to the CEC in the near future. I think that the coalition powers have already decided to run in the council member elections separately.” In answer to question whether they are not afraid that the RPA’s candidate may lose the election in consideration of the fact that the ANC has always won in Yerevan he said, “Elections make people worry but I don’t think we have a reason to worry about it this time. The campaign has not started yet, the platforms are not ready and there has not been a rapid change to make us think of drastic change of the course.” RPA member Armen Ashotyan believes that this decision on part of the ANC is a result of debates within their parties and discussions who to nominate in the first place of the list. “This issue was given a specific solution: no one is going to be the first one because the first one is Levon Ter-Petrosyan. I also think this decision is a result of external influence of policies because there were no facts or information about that before announcing it. Levon Ter-Petrosyan did not speak about it during the rally of March 1 either.”
In answer to our question whether the PA is not surprised at the ANC’s decision and whether the coalition may come up with one joint list PA faction MP Naira Zohrabyan said, “From the very beginning we knew that if the ANC participated in the mayoral elections, their first candidate in the list would be Levon Ter-Petrosyan. In a word, if there are people who think that with this decision the opposition has faced the coalition with a big surprise, they are mistaken. The decision was quite predictable and I wander what is the purpose of making such big noise of their decision. As for the Prosperous Armenia, our party has announced that we would take part in the elections for council members and we will publish our platform and list of candidates very soon. The citizens of Armenia are the one to decide whose platform and candidates are good.”
LS faction member Hovhannes Margaryan says that they have not decided it yet and they will make a final decision during a meeting of LS headquarters due to on March 21. Yesterday the ARF organized a discussion to decide what to do in this situation. According to our information, the first candidate in the ARF list will be Artsvik Minasyan (several days ago the problem of permanent residency in Yerevan during the past three years was solved). By the way, before the ARF yesterday’s session he had refuted the rumors that he might be the ARF’s candidate.
In answer to a question whether Heritage party may join the ANC the leader of the party Raffi Hovhannisyan said, “I can’t answer that question. Only three people from our party can answer this question. These people are Anahit Bakhshyan, Armen Martirosyan and spokesperson Hovsep Khurshudyan. I have not taken part in any negotiations with the ANC and I know that there have been some meetings with the ANC and some other powers, which I think is natural.” Raffi Hovhannisyan says that after the mentioned decision on part of ANC the Heritage party has not had any meetings with them. “I am for unity if such unity is based on mutual respect, equity and the vision of victory but not little problems or solutions. It is a pity that the recent appointment of the mayor shows that the legal system of Armenia is weak. I think that the mentioned appointment was illegal and unconstitutional. I don’t think that we’ll be able to provide the real choice for the people of Yerevan. I see that there is a tendency here of solving small problems, which cannot bring to the solution of the biggest problems and people will not have the mayor elected by the public vote. It is a struggle for positions and we will see the result of such struggle.” In answer to our question whether the Heritage party had not been informed about the expected decision of the ANC and they were informed about it only from media Raffi Hovhannissyan said, “I know that the Heritage had meetings both with the ANC and other parties. Definitely the decision has already been made and we are for maintaining the connection open, and we are ready to listen explanations and opinions of both pro-government and opposition members, and the Heritage will make a final decision to enable the citizens of Yerevan to make a conscious choice. There are several competent candidates already and now we are to decide what to do next.”
Before the Heritage would decide what to do, ANC representatives Levon Zurabyan said that if the Heritage decides to nominate their own candidate, “the ANC will not understand it”. He says that Heritage has suggested to nominate one candidate and endorse the candidate jointly, thus the ANC has nominated the candidate and they can discuss the joint list of candidates. In answer to question whether it means that the Heritage should join the ANC list he said, “You can construe it as you like. The most important thing is the opposition’s participation. I don’t think that anyone may understand the decision not to join us. We have united opposition now and the only thing the opposition should do now is to unite fully.” In answer whether the opposition may organize strikes, rallies or demonstrations again if Ter-Petrosyan does not win the mayoral election Levon Zurabyan said, “We will be loyal to peaceful and democratic methods as it has been before too. We are suggesting one thing: the authorities should change the way they are doing because new violence will not stay without punishment any more.”