YERZI YASKERNIA GETS FAMILIAR WITH DOMESTIC CONTROVERSY OVER CONFIDENCE REFERENDUM

A1 Plus | 19:16:02 | 14-06-2004 | Politics |

PACE Monitoring Commission member Yerzi Yaskernia, who arrived Friday
night in Yerevan to see how much Armenia has accomplished in complying
with the PACE resolution demands, has met with parliamentary groups
and fractions as part of his mission.

Yerzi Yaskernia wanted to hear opinions about confidence referendum.

The referendum couldn’t be conducted as it contradicts Armenia’s
constitution, MP Gagik Minasyan, a member the ruling coalition’s
Republican Party, said.

Members of the ruling coalition’s another party Orinats Erkir expressed
the same view.

Levon Lazarian, an MP from Dashnaktsutyun, the third member party
of the tree-headed ruling coalition, told Yaskernia people hadn’t
supported the idea of confidence referendum and the number of rally
participants had become scant because of little public support.

Dashnak Vahan Hovhannisyan said people distrusted the opposition
line and are unhappy about lack of clear program. In his opinion,
the Constitutional Court’s proposal to conduct a referendum leads to
a deadlock. The court has to confess that its proposal was nothing
more than a mere mistake.

Artarutyun fraction leader Stepan Demirchyan, MP of polar-opposite
political background and president Kocharyan’s key rival in
presidential elections, said the steps taken by the authorities to
comply with PACE demands are insufficient and aimed at deceiving PACE.

He also said criminal case against Artarutyun opposition bloc activists
are not dismissed so far, though they are released from detention.

Nothing has been done to prosecute officials having committed fraud
and violating the law during elections, despite abundant convincing
evidence.

The opposition another leader Artashes Geghamyan voiced his concern
about the situation in media field saying Armenia’s population is
deprived of receiving objective information: opposition-staged events
are not being covered in media outlets at all or distorted.

In his words, the opposition is even deprived of paid broadcasting
to air its views. He expressed regret about the fact of stripping A1+
TV Company of its broadcasting license and added today the opposition
can make public its opinion only on Azatutyun radio and through some
opposition-minded newspapers.