ARMENIAN COMMUNIST PARTY TO INDEPENDENTLY PARTICIPATE IN PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS 2007

ArmInfo News Agency, Armenia
Oct 24 2006

At a meeting with journalists at the "Pakagits" club, Tuesday, Leader
of the Armenian Communist Party Rouben Tovmasyan said that his party
will independently participate in the parliamentary elections in
spring 2007.

According to him, the Communist Party will form an electoral bloc
only with parties with similar ideologies, and only in this case
one may speak about cooperation. At the same time, Rouben Tovmasyan
pointed out the good prospects for cooperation of opposition parties
in struggle against any possible electoral frauds.

Commenting on parliamentary discussions of the project of the Electoral
Code’s reform, Tovmasyan emphasized that the CPA has always supported
the immediate transition to a 100% proportional electoral system. At
the same time, the Electoral Code should provide for a procedure of
recalling deputies who attempt to move to other parties.

Tovmasyan said that any parliamentary party should have the right to
immediately recall the MP who is going to change his faction.

Characterizing the modern domestic political tendencies, the leader of
Communists criticized the attempts of a number of political forces to
bribe rural voters by distributing so-called humanitarian assistance,
particularly, potato seeds. Tovmasyan said that one cannot speak
of fair democratic elections if one sees what is going on in the
political system of the country. He concluded that the CPA’s success
will be to overcome the 5% barrier if pro-governmental parties use
huge financial resources to manipulate the election returns.