On the last day of the pre-election campaign the Armenian national Congress and Prosperous Armenia party held their latest rallies in Yerevan. Other parties participating in the elections on May 6 have met with voters from different communities of Yerevan as well. RPA chairman Serzh Sargsyan met with the voters of Ajapnyak community, and the Heritage party organized a concert and meeting with voters in the square after Charles Aznavour.
At 5p.m. the Prosperous Armenia party held a rally in the vicinity of the Matenadaran, however it lasted very short because of heavy rain. People were bused to Yerevan from the major cities and communities of Armenia to take part in the rally of the Prosperous Armenia. Most of the participants were from regions. The buses and vans that brought those people to Yerevan made jams in the city and did not let the traffic stream normally. The PA’s rally was crowded. However, shortly after the beginning of the rally it started to rain and the PA’s chairman Gagik Tsarukyan announced the closing of the rally and the participants marched to the Republic Square. The conversations of the participants between each other made us understand that a lot of money had been spent for organizing such crowded gathering. Among the participants there were also regional and community coordinators, who said that they had spent huge money to bring those people to Yerevan. During the rally short speeches were made by Gagik Tsarukyan, Naira Zohrabyan and Vartan Oskanyan. Naira Zohrabyan said that the real social poll was the crowded gathering of the PA’s followers. “Time for silence will come, when the only one that can listen to your voice will be your conscience. It will be your conscious whispering you what kind of future to choose for Armenia. I have no doubt that you will elect the political power, which pri0rity is the human being,” announced naira Zohrabyan. “Choice is very easy and if you like the existing situation, you can go and vote for the incumbent government. And if you don’t like it, you should vote for the PA. With these elections we must cure one the other, we must change the situation and abolish the monopoly,” said Vartan Oskanyan.
In the end of the rally Tsarukyan said that he was not going to lose people’s trust and would do whatever he was going to say. “We will protect every single vote. The most important thing is going to vote and do not listen to anyone; vote for the one that your heart wants. Everything will be good, God bless you and let your wishes come true,” said Gagik Tsarukyan.
The deputy chief of Yerevan police Robert Melkonyan announced that according to their calculations, 18,000 people had participated in the PA’s rally. The number of people participating in the ANC’s rally in the Republic Square was not less. This was the most crowded rally after the rally of the ANC this spring. Even though during the ANC’s rally there were clouds, it did not rain. In his speech the ANC leader Levon Ter-Petrosyan analyzed the campaign and said that the visit of their team and other certain powers made many people go out of their box and not to be afraid anymore. Those people in their contacts with many powers heard critics addressed at the “criminal regime”. They have understood that the ruling powers, the RPA and LS, do not have real votes and they are relying on their resources and administrative resources, which is the regime of Kocharyan and Serzh, which also relies on the criminal regime and electoral falsifications to keep their power. According to Ter-Petrosyan, the campaign had proven that the only powers that were really interested in fair elections were the ANC, ARF and PA, which is also proven by the cooperation of those powers to make sure elections are fair and are not falsified. According to him, the biggest achievement during this rally has been breaking the stereotype that parliamentary elections are not so important as the presidential election. Thus, the goal of the political powers is overcoming this psychological barrier and make the society understand that parliamentary elections are very important and decisive for presidential election. He also said that there were a number of factors inspiring hope that this time the authorities will not be able to falsify the elections like the other times. First, as a result of the processes and revolutions, uprisings in Arabic countries the international community ahs to revise its approach and policy toward dictator regimes and will not be tolerant to them anymore, thus they will pay more attention to development of democracy and protection of human rights. In addition, he believes that the strong attitude of the international community to Armenia is also partly conditioned by the desire not to let the falsifications and violations that happened during the elections in 2008 be repeated again. “I hope that this time the international observers will give more objective and stricter answer to the elections, being cautious to using dangerous formulations describing elections such as “elections have been consistent with European standards” or “those were one step forward”, which tend to legitimize the illegal regimes that want o be re-elected through violations,” said the ANC leader. Levon Ter-Petrosyan said that the presence of the ANC, PA and ARF in polling stations and heir cooperation was going to be an unprecedented effective mechanism aimed at changing the quality of elections. And if the Constitutional Court declares the provision on the secrecy of voter participation list unconstitutional, the authorities will not be able to use their main violation mechanism, which is the names of 700.000 people that are missing from the country. In the end of the rally Ter-Petrosyan reminded the participants that the minimum goal of the upcoming elections was taking the monopoly of power from Serzh Sargsyan, which will enable making the parliament a counterbalance for the executive power and create conditions for getting rid of the criminal authorities during the upcoming presidential election. “In case of adequate proportion of powers in the parliament there may be a real coalition in the parliament, where before that the RPA was the main dominating power and the other powers of the coalition were lower and had humiliated roles. The ANC does not exclude the possibility of participation in a real coalition by refusing any possible cooperation with the RPA and/or LS, which are the main bad of this country… In case of a due consciousness and good choice you are able to make May 6 a day of change to restore the constitutional order in the country and develop the social situation for the purpose of good life. There may not be any other chance like this anymore,” announced Levon Ter-Petrosyan.
ANC coordinator Levon Zurabyan said that not only the Congress, but the ARF and PA as well were decisive to fight against violations. “The PA’s leader has announced that there would be no mercy for electoral violations,” said Levon Zurabyan about Gagik Tsarukyan’s announcement and commitment. L.Zurabyan is going to meet with ARF’s Armen Rustamyan for the purpose of planning the joint activities on May 6. He said that their cooperation during this election would be a “spiritual revolution”, struggle against slavery and for the sake of freedom, between the criminal and lawful groups. Nikol Pashinyan spoke about his theory of a “revolution within 30 seconds.” “I am kindly asking all voters to think where they are going, why and what is their purpose before going to vote. If you are going to the polls because your mayor or community head has made you do so as they have been obligated and you have been instructed, and if you don’t care wh0o your parliamentarian will be, you can take bribe. But later you must not say that you have been embezzled and cheated. They gave and you took what they gave; you are no better than them because it is simple trade and in trade either if the parties cheats the other,” announced the chairman of Republic party Aram Sargsyan.
“If you want the country to have a good future, we must ban the criminal and oligarchic power in the country. This system has been and continues to be the main obstacle of the country’s development. We are calling on everyone to take part in elections. If you want a change, you must ban this system, which has brought the country to this situation, and electoral bribery,” said ADP’s chairman Stepan Demirchyan.
The participants of the rally marched in the streets of Yerevan and returned to the square, where Ter-Petrosyan made a speech. He spoke about the interview of the second president Robert Kocharyan one day before the rally, which contained sharp critics addressed at the current authorities. “Interview with such content three days before the elections is nothing else but a stab in Serzh Sargsyan’s back. A predator that has been left alone during the pre-election campaign could not keep away from the idea of throwing out his bile,” said the ANC’s leader.
The ANC’s next rally is due to on May 8, two days after the election day. The ANC’s loyalists believe that it is going to be the day of their victory.