Robert Kocharyan announced on Friday at Yerevan State University that he does not agree with the statement that the mass media is violating the balance of the pre-election campaign by shedding light on the activities of Prime Minister Serge Sargsyan, who is also chairman of the Armenian Republican Party and heads that party’s proportional electoral list.
“The government is still working and the Constitution does not say that the government should not work full time, may not hold sessions or pass resolutions,” said Kocharyan, who probably forgot that the laws stated in the Constitution prohibit government officials to run campaigns. During the campaign, the officials either have to resign or “go on vacation”. Meanwhile, now it has been chosen to campaign during “non-working hours”. According to R. Kocharyan, the work of the prime minister doesn’t support the campaign; rather it stands in the way.
“Having certain advantages from the so-called administrative resources perspective, the existing authorities also have certain issues due to which they are not able to totally dedicate themselves to the campaign. It is simply impossible. I have gone through that and know that nearly half the time you are forced to fulfill the duties that you are obligated to do according to the Constitution and the law. There is no alternative and if, in essence, the activities of the prime minister aren’t shown to the people, or the activities of that sector of the Republican Party administration at all, then they will be in a much worse situation than the rest who can start the campaign from the morning and run until midnight,” said Kocharyan, who also proposed to the OSCE observers to differentiate between how much of Serge Sargsyan’s work has been shed light on as a prime minister and how much as running the Republican Party campaign.
“Of course, the government must shed light on its work to a certain extent and not create a situation where it is not shed light on more than the usual regime, taking into consideration the campaign,” said Kocharyan in closing.