ARMENIAN OPPOSITION LEADERS MULL CONSOLIDATION AHEAD OF PARLIAMENT POLLS

Aravot, Yerevan,
9 Jan 2007 pp 1, 3

Artashes Geghamian, the leader of an Armenian opposition party, has
confirmed he is in talks with the leader of another opposition party
to unite efforts in the March parliamentary election. In addition,
the leaders of two other smaller opposition parties also spoke
of unification to succeed in the election. The following is the
text of Anna Israelian’s report in Armenian newspaper Aravot on 9
January entitled "Geghamian and Demirchian in talks. New union but
on one list":

Aratashes Geghamian, the leader of the [opposition] National Unity
party, confirmed yesterday [8 January] to Radio Liberty the recent
news that his party is actively conducting talks with the [opposition]
People’s Party of Armenia [PPA].

"You are right. There were some discussions with the PPA in that
regard, but first of all, we agreed that everything should be done
to ensure a democratic process and the legitimacy of the forthcoming
elections, and rule out election fraud," Geghamian said.

Before the New Year holidays, [leader of the Alliance of National
Democrats and MP] Arshak Sadoyan told the press that an alliance
between the Alliance of National Democrats [AND] and the Democratic
Path Party [DPP] would be the best. "I think that a union between me
and Manuk [Gasparian, the leader of the DPP] can be quite effective,
especially that neither of us has ambitions to be the first and we
are ready to be the second on the list. This can be a very viable
union taking into account both my and Manuk Gasparian’s popularity."

"We have almost reached mutual understanding with Arshak," Manuk
Gasparian told us.

But the agreements are not limited only to DPP. The DPP leader said:
"We are conducting negotiations with a number of individual politicians
who enjoy great popularity among the people and are respected. However,
we are not considering establishing a bloc; instead, we are talking
about running [in the elections] with a single party list. The
party, which proves to be more practical, more prepared in terms of
participating in the elections and capable of obtaining finances,
will be selected. We have decided to unite several people in one party
without forming a bloc because we are afraid that if there is a bloc,
when one more party joins [the bloc], additional 25,000 votes should be
gathered to overcome the 5-per-cent [threshold]. We consider this to
be very dangerous: 25,000 votes are not there waiting on the streets
while the number of pro-government political parties has been on the
increase (four clearly pro-government forces are already running
in the election). We cannot do that in order to ensure 7 per cent
[sentence as given]. Simply, our parties will support each other in
the elections; one or two members from each party will be admitted
to that one party. According to the plan discussed, we will announce
that the politicians included in that list – those who enjoy respect
of the people – accept the provisions of the party and are ready
to collaborate."

Manuk Gasparian did not reveal the names of individual politicians
they are negotiating with. "There are two or three of them. You might
actually know yourselves the individuals who enjoy popularity. These
people might have their own parties. I simply do not want to publicize
their names because we may not come to an agreement.

Everything is going fine, but one of them still has doubts, another
one is thinking whether it is going to work, the third one has asked
for some time to make a decision. After we come to a final agreement,
I’ll give their names. However, if I give their names now, some of
them may withdraw or obstacles may be created for them. While all
the pro-government parties count on money to get into the parliament,
we want to gain votes by engaging individuals who enjoy respect and
win votes without money. I think that if we manage to unite these
five figures (Manuk Gasparian, Arshak Sadoyan plus three undisclosed
individuals – Anna Israelian), we will have 15 per cent in the
parliament. But if it is only Arshak, I am sure we can have 7 or 8
per cent."

When speaking to Arshak Sadoyan, we tried to find out some details but
he only gave this information: "Discussions, meetings were conducted
before the New Year. We agreed that it is worth forming a wide front
to struggle for free and fair elections, to make sure that they [the
government] don’t do what they want. There were consultations but no
final decisions have been made."

Sadoyan, too, refused to reveal the names of the three other
politicians they were conducting talks with. "The discussions are
still under way. I have met many people, but it is not right to
publicize their names. Later, we will inform you about the results."

Manuk Gasparian spoke about running as one party whereas Arshak
Sadoyan mentioned "a front".

"We have not even decided yet whether we will be running as one party
or as a bloc, and since everything is at an initial stage, I don’t
think it is right to speak about it," Sadoyan said when asked whether
he had thought of a name for the front.