OPPOSITION TO BOYCOTT ELECTION OF NEW ARMENIAN SPEAKER

Radio Free Europe, Czech Rep.
May 18 2006

Armenia’s two main opposition groups said on Thursday that they will
boycott the upcoming election of the new speaker and the chairmen
of two standing committees of parliament, dismissing it as an
“illegitimate” body.

The Artarutyun alliance and the National Unity Party (AMK) said the
move is in line with their three-year politically motivated boycott
of most parliament sessions. Both opposition forces had refused to
participate in the formation of the National Assembly’s leadership
following the disputed parliamentary election in May 2003.

“The elections of the National Assembly took place [in May 2003] with
serious violations and did not correspond to the people’s choice,” an
Artarutyun spokeswoman said after a meeting of the bloc’s governing
council. “Therefore, the Artarutyun alliance is not going to take
part in those intra-government games.”

“We will only take part in debates and express our position,” clarified
Victor Dallakian, a senior Artarutyun lawmaker.

“We have neither a desire nor an intention to join the coalition
games,” Aghasi Arshakian, a parliament deputy from the AMK, told
RFE/RL.

The Armenian parliament will have to pick a new leader after
its outgoing speaker, Artur Baghdasarian, formally ceases to
perform his duties at the end of this month. The chairmen of the
parliament committees on security and social affairs affiliated with
Baghdasarian’s Orinats Yerkir party have also stepped down as a result
of the party’s withdrawal from the governing coalition.

The vacant posts will likely go to two other pro-establishment parties
that remain represented in President Robert Kocharian’s government. The
opposition minority in the National Assembly does not have enough
seats to seriously affect results of the planned parliament vote.

Artarutyun’s decision to boycott the process was not unanimous,
with at least one of its leaders, Arshak Sadoyan, insisting that the
opposition should field a candidate for the post of speaker.

In a related development, opposition leaders denied a newspaper
report that Baghdasarian, who now claims to be in opposition to
Kocharian, has asked them to relinquish their parliament seats in
protest against the ruling regime. Dallakian said he is against the
idea in the first place.

“It is those deputies who got their mandates by illegal means who must
hand in mandates,” he said. “The Artarutyun deputies rightly earned
their mandates, and if the elections had not been rigged Artarutyun
would have had a majority in parliament.”

Another leader of the bloc, Vazgen Manukian, did not rule out the
possibility of the opposition’s cooperation with Orinats Yerkir. “For
all its shortcomings and its participation in many bad things, there
are people in that party with whom we can cooperate,” he told RFE/RL.