After long-lasting sessions the Heritage party finally decided on Sunday not to run in the mayoral election of Yerevan to take place on May 31. Prior to that the version of not running was not quite possible.
Was it a priority to run alone or in the same list with the Armenian National Congress? During the past several days it became more probable that if the Heritage doesn’t join the ANC list it will run on its own. During that the period the party would abstain making any statements and would only mention that the negotiations with the ANC were continuing. However, the Heritage showed some manners of resent when the ANC announced that during the elections of the members of the elderly council their list would lead the first president of Armenia Levon Ter-Petrosyan and the second place would occupy the chairman of the People’s Party of Armenia. Only the third place of the list will be occupied by the Heritage. The latter being unexpectedly surprised demonstrated its “counter” list, which was led by the NA MP Armen Martirosyan. The Heritage gave only the second place to Ter-Petrosyan. On Friday midnight the Heritage presented its second list, which was then led by the chairman of the Heritage party Raffi Hovhannisian. In a word, in both of the cases the Heritage presented options which wouldn’t be acceptable by the Congress. And this would enable the Heritage to stipulate the purpose why the ANC didn’t join them. There was also an impression that the Heritage was insulted with the fact that the second place of the ANC list was occupied by Demirchyan. During this discord many opinions were heard about this step and those even equaled to the fact that the Heritage has gradually become like the Legal State or the National Unity. The RPA members had made some protective speeches addressed to the Heritage. They were saying that the Heritage was cooperating with the government in the framework of the mayoral election of Yerevan. And the leader of the Legal State Artur Baghdasaryan felt a little more relaxed about Heritage and its position in this environment. “Starting from January-February of 2008 they were always blaming us by saying we should either be with them and if not we will be considered national traitors and adversaries. Now they are doing the same thing against the Heritage,” last week said the chairman of the Legal State party Artur Baghdasaryan when presenting the Legal State candidate for the mayoral election of Yerevan. The only way of resolving the current situation with honor the Heritage found it expedient to refuse to run the race. “We decided not to run the race and call the public to give their ballots to the opposition,” reads the statement of the Heritage. Of course the statement doesn’t say who the Heritage means when saying opposition – the ANC, Tigran Karapetyan or maybe the Dashnaks, who recently have a “habit” to play opposition prior to election and support the government afterwards. Yesterday all the representatives of the Heritage refused to answer the questions of the journalists. And till now it’s not clear why the Heritage didn’t join the ANC list when it would support the opposition candidate in the presidential elections 2008. “We will hold a press conference on Wednesday and will answer all your questions,” said the press officer of the Heritage Hovsep Khurshudyan. If they wanted to run separately why wouldn’t they say it from the beginning? It is yet unclear whether negotiations proceeded between the ANC and the Heritage. Last week Khurshudayn told us that the board of their party authorized certain Heritage representatives to hold negotiations with the ANC in order to participate in the elections in a single list. Recently even the ANC doesn’t comment on the created situation. So did the ANC negotiate with the Heritage? And the press officer of the ANC Arman Musinyan offers the journalists to wait till their today’s press conference of the answer of questions.