The U.S. embassy in Armenia had organized a reception on the night of
the 44th U.S. presidential elections. In the early hours of 5-9 a.m. on
November 3, the guests at the U.S. embassy were following up on the
presidential elections on BBC and CNN and via the internet. They were
marking the states on the map. The color blue was for the Republican
states and red for the Democratic states. The U.S. Embassy had invited
all representatives of the political organizations, government members,
deputies (even though only members of the opposition had come). Others
present at the gathering were representatives of local and
international organizations, journalists, U.S. citizens working in
Armenia and professors. The embassy organized a fake-election for the
guests. It was for anyone who wished to have the opportunity to vote
for his or her favored president. However, those “fake elections” were
more like Armenian elections, rather than American. There were cases of
filling too many people, people voted more than once and some of the
guests claimed that they “bribed” in the elections. Chief of the Public
Relations Department of the U.S. Embassy Kimberly Hargney says that
these “fake elections” simply made up the entertainment part of the
whole gathering. In response to my remark made about Armenia’s
bookmaker offices placing bets on who will be the 44th president of the
U.S., Mrs. Hargney replied: “There are bets being placed in Las Vegas
too. After all, there are people everywhere who place bets on
anything.” Whoever I interviewed, the majority was ready to “bet” that
George Bush would win the elections. According to department staff
member of the Armenian National Movement David Shahnazaryan, “Bush has
higher chances of winning. Many people in Armenia are trying to decide
which presidential candidate will help Armenia more. That is a
meaningless question. U.S. foreign politics is hereditary and it passes
from one president to the next. Any reforms in foreign politics will
not change anything. It is a waste of time to make allegations that
U.S. foreign politics will change if John Kerry gets elected as
president.” As for the bets being placed in Armenia’s bookmaker offices
during the U.S. presidential elections, David Shahnazaryan states that
“U.S. citizens today are voting for the most influential president. We
can not place any bets on that and refer to this as a game. This is
neither a soccer game nor a casino. In my opinion, I think that Bush
will win.”
President of the National Assembly Unity political party Vazgen
Manukyan, the U.S. elections “are not run properly. An issue has come
up: the necessity of collegiums of voters when it was not possible to
maintain fair elections. This often leads to irony when one president
receives a higher number of votes than the other. But looking at this
from different perspectives, the president’s pureness, his campaign,
and the correctness of his inquiries on social issues.” Vazgen Manukyan
also foresees George Bush winning the election. In contrast to many
Armenian Americans gathered at the U.S. Embassy in Armenia, sociologist
Murad Muradyan favors the political parties and other individuals. This
time he has elected for Democratic candidate John Kerry. “I believe in
Kerry. He has lived among the Armenian community all his life and he is
familiar with Armenians’ problems.” President of the Azgayin
Miabanutyun (National Unity) political party Artashes Geghamyan was
amazed when we asked him about his opinion regarding the U.S.
presidential elections: “Do the American people care about what I
think? Picture the Mississippi River. It goes with the flow and has
been going with that flow for centuries. It is the same with U.S.
politics.” Artashes Geghamyan stated his opinion as to why Armenia’s
coalition members did not participate in the U.S. elections: “Well, for
some the “work day” ends late at night at the casinos. They have most
probably not managed to wake up. When they do they will come.” Despite
that, not one of the coalition members or deputies came to the Embassy.
At around 8 a.m. in the morning, Defense Minister of the RA Serj
Sargsyan, Vice Defense Minister Artur Aghabekyan and Chief of the
Department of Foreign and Strategic Relations Mikael Melkonyan joined
the festivities. According to Serj Sargsyan, there will be no change in
strategic relations between the U.S. and Armenia no matter who wins in
the U.S. presidential elections. “I am not one of those people who
believes that the U.S. will immediately remove its bases in Iraq if
Kerry gets elected.” Serj Sargsyan stated his opinion about the U.S.
presidential elections: “What can we foresee?” Even around 9 a.m. in
the morning, nothing was final. The workers at the embassy announced
the results of the “local fake elections”. The U.S. presidential
elections in Armenia ended with the victory of John Kerry with 42
electoral votes and 8 for George Bush. This was because most of the
guests were U.S. citizens, Embassy workers and representatives of
international organizations. The most surprising was that one of the
voters elected Robert Kocharyan for president. At the end of the
gathering, John Evans announced that he would like to have the results
of the elections, “but democracy is a little unpredictable and this
year’s elections are kind of mixed up.’