“National Unity” political party leader Artashes Geghamyan announced during a press conference on Monday that his party has decided to follow the methods of the U.S. government. What methods has Geghamyan decided to follow?
It turns out that Americans always start out by formulating the issue, and then take action. This is the wise method that the “NU” has decided to follow and the leader of the party has sat down and written a book about that entitled “Anti-Crisis Platform”. However, the “Anti-Crisis Platform-2”, according to the author, is not the continuation of the 2002 platform. This one has been “updated” and has been written taking into consideration the events that have taken place in Armenia and the world over the past five years. Based on the “Anti-Crisis Platform”, the “NU” has foreseen “national projects”. According to Geghamyan, this platform will grant “NU” the opportunity to pass at least 42-43 laws within 100 days upon entering parliament.
“When Franklin Roosevelt was elected U.S. president in 1932, more laws were passed within 11 days, I repeat, 11 days than during the 70 years before Roosevelt. In other words, the country had a platform,” announced the “NU” leader.
According to him, their political party has turned the platform into the strategic key for their pre-election campaign because Armenians have gotten tired of the authorities and the opposition, because “the authorities are doing everything they can in order to say that there is no opposition and the opposition is doing everything it can to say that the authorities are corrupt, bought, etc.”
“The people want a platform; they want to see a road, they want to see the light at the end of the tunnel,” says Geghamyan.
The “NU” leader also announced that they hope that the upcoming elections will be “much more legal and fairer no matter what.” Judging from this, we can say that, according to Geghamyan, the previous elections were “legal and fair” and it is simply a hope that the upcoming elections will be “much more legal and fair”. But why are they hoping?
“We can no longer hold the people back. If any violations or electoral fraud take place, “NU” itself will call on the people to stand up; otherwise we will lose the country. Neither 2003 nor 2005 will be repeated. This is the last and unique opportunity for Armenia,” said Geghamyan.
It’s interesting: what did the “NU” leader mean when he said that “2003 will not be repeated”? Did he really mean that he will not go underground for two weeks right when the social movement was at its peak as he did in 2003 during the 1st and 2nd stages of the presidential elections? Whatever…we shouldn’t get the impression that Geghamyan is not for unity. After all, the name of the party says it all. As known, “NU” has already called on the oppositional parties to create a joint structure, like a headquarters that will supposedly control the elections. Aram Karapetyan has made the same proposal. Geghamyan proposes Paruyr Hayrikyan to be the leader of that body. According to the “NU” leader, even if there are 2-3 parties, “we will combine our efforts to prevent the violations.”
“All of us, first of all the country, are going to win by combining our efforts,” announced Artashes Geghamyan, whose political party was the first party that declared going to the National Assembly elections alone. After the union of oppositionists failed, they have now nominated candidates against each other in many precincts. Is it possible for “NU” to come to terms with the oppositional political parties regarding the nomination of candidates in the majority electoral system to go one-on-one? It turns out not.
“As of today, no oppositionist can say what is going on between the candidates nominated in the precincts. No oppositionist can talk about democracy and setting its “boundaries”. We are going to consult with our oppositional allies so that we may secure the conduct of free, fair and transparent elections in the precincts,” explained Geghamyan. In fact, the latter drew direct or indirect parallels between him, Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt. How many votes does “NU” expect to get during the upcoming elections?
“In 2006, the “Gelap” institute conducted serious methodological research in Armenia and as a result, the rating of yours truly ranged from 54-58%. I have placed an issue in front of my colleagues-if we don’t get at least half of that percentage, it will mean that we didn’t do a good job, and our party is not used to doing a poor job. So, under the condition of getting the minimum amount, or half, we will still get 28-30% of the votes, and we will forbid anyone to trick us and try to falsify the election results,” said Geghamyan. He also mentioned that when the party announced that it was not going to pay for airtime, thousands of people joined the party.
“There were touching moments-they brought us half of their pensions for us to do something, but we told them that we have a bank account and that they can place that amount in the account. So, that issue is solved; however, we will most probably pay for airtime,” said the “NU” leader in closing.