“HANRAPETUTYUN” PARTY MEMBER WITHDRAWS

YEREVAN, August 16 (Noyan Tapan). Khachik Simonian, the
“Hanrapetutyun” (“Republic”) Party member, who was nominated by the
civil initiative for the August 29 parliamentary elections, took a
decision to withdraw his candidacy.

According to Kh. Simonian’s August 16 statement provided to NT by the
“Hanrapetutyun” Party’s press cervice, after the outrageous 2003
elections, the April 2004 developments and subsequent reverberations
of the Armenian public and international community, Armenia’s
authorities did not draw any conclusions, nor did they make any
attempt to bring their actions in line with the spirit of the RA
Constitution and the country’s international commitments. According to
him, in electoral district No. 44, where his candidacy was nominated
“the same illegal mechanisms function, public opinion is influenced by
the total use of administrative resources and vote buying, political
struggle has given way to clan squabbles between the various groups of
the illegimate authorities. Expressing deep gratitude to thousands of
his supporters, Kh. Simonian at the same time noted that the
opposition will continue political struggle with the aim of fulfilling
the public hopes, restoring the constitutional order in the country
and forming legitimate authorities.