Neither of the potential presidential candidates has submitted nomination application to the CEC so far. However, five politicians have applied to the passports and visa subdivision of the RA Police to obtain a certification of permanent residency during the past ten years. The mentioned potential candidates are the former president Levon Ter-Petrosyan, “National Unity Party” leader Artashes Geghamyan, world box champion Israel Hakobkokhyan, “New Times” party chair Aram Karapetyan and “Rule of Law” party leader Arthur Baghdasaryan. According to the Police media service, the mentioned five persons can participate in the elections and they don’t have any problems with their documents. In spite of the mentioned candidates, “Heritage” party leader Raffi Hovhannisyan, who wants to run too, has such problems since president Robert Kocharyan has refused his application to re-consider the term of his citizenship. Accordingly, Raffi Hovhannisyan should make a decision whom to support during the elections and we hope he will not petition his constituency to vote as they like as usually he does just before voting sessions of important issues in the parliament.
