BAGHDASARIAN WARNS OF VOTE RIGGING
By Karine Kalantarian

Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
Feb 21 2007

Former parliament speaker Artur Baghdasarian on Wednesday urged the
West not to turn a blind eye to serious fraud which he believes could
mar Armenia’s upcoming parliamentary elections.

"Unfortunately, there are forces in the Armenian government that
might try to steal the upcoming elections," he said in an article
published by "The Wall Street Journal." "And there are those abroad
who might turn a blind eye to such a scam in the name of stability."

"But stability will only come to Armenia and the region through
governments supported and elected by the people," he added. "That’s
why we need international election monitors. The OSCE mission in
Armenia must be supported so that it can do its job."

Baghdasarian’s Orinats Yerkir Party will be a major opposition
contender during the elections. His comments expose opposition fears
that the United States and the European Union will more lenient towards
Armenia’s leadership now that it seems close to cutting a peace deal
with Azerbaijan. The Western powers expect the two states take the
final step towards resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict after the
Armenian elections slated for May 12.

Baghdasarian repeated in that regard opposition arguments that only
democratically elected governments in Yerevan and Baku would the
have the mandate to make painful mutual concessions. "The way to
resolve in Nagorno-Karabakh the conflict is through elections that
produce legitimate governments — first in Armenia but eventually
in Azerbaijan as well. This popular legitimacy will give the next
governments the authority to make the necessary concessions," he wrote.

President Robert Kocharian and other Armenian leaders have assured
the West that the approaching elections will be more democratic that
the ones held until now. But their political opponents dismiss these
assurances, saying that the authorities will lose power if the vote
is free and fair.

In a separate interview with RFE/RL on Wednesday, Baghdasarian
stressed that the Armenian opposition can play a serious role in
ensuring its proper conduct. "We must primarily rely on ourselves,"
he said. "We must fight for a democratic Armenia. But if there are
big falsifications, there will be big upheavals."

Visiting Washington last week, the ambitious ex-speaker, who favors
a pro-Western foreign policy agenda, likewise warned that a repeat of
serious vote irregularities could spark opposition demonstrations in
Yerevan. The Kocharian administration already faced street protests in
2003 and 2004 over its hotly disputed handling of the last Armenian
presidential election . Baghdasarian and his party were part of the
governing coalition at the time.

In his article, the Orinats Yerkir leader described Armenia as an
"undemocratic country" mired in government corruption. "The citizens
of Armenia are not free," he said. "Our media is state-controlled and
TV airtime for opposition parties during the parliamentary campaign
is severely limited."

Baghdasarian, whose is often branded a populist by his detractors,
would not say if he raised his concerns with Kocharian before Orinats
Yerkir was forced out of Kocharian’s coalition government in May last
year. He claimed that the situation with press freedom in Armenia
has since deteriorated. "Never before has there been such total
[government] control of television before," he told RFE/RL.