NO PROGRESS IN OPPOSITION TALKS ON ELECTION BLOC
By Ruzanna Stepanian
Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
Feb 27 2007
Several major Armenian opposition parties reported no progress late
Tuesday in their last-minute negotiations over the possible formation
of a new electoral alliance.
They appeared to have finally failed to bring Stepan Demirchian,
President Robert Kocharian’s main challenger in the last presidential
election, into the fold.
Demirchian’s People’s Party of Armenia (HZhK) was not participating
in the talks involving the Hanrapetutyun, Zharangutyun and National
Democratic Union (AZhM) parties. The former ruling Armenian
Pan-National Movement was also involved in them.
There were no indications that the four mostly pro-Western parties
can reach agreement even among themselves. "We have no ideological
disagreements. There are only differences in our tactical approaches,"
a Hanrapetutyun leader, Suren Sureniants, told RFE/RL.
"The talks can not continue endlessly, and late in the evening the
Hanrapetutyun party will decide on the form of its participation in
the elections," he said.
Hanrapetutyun’s outspoken chairman, former Prime Minister Aram
Sarkisian, has been particularly keen to see a broad-based opposition
bloc take on Kocharian’s political allies in the May 12 elections.
Zharangutyun leader Raffi Hovannisian has also strongly advocated the
idea, warning that the opposition will face defeat unless it closes
the ranks. It was not immediately clear what exactly stood in the
way of their consolidation.
Meanwhile, Demirchian’s party blamed its erstwhile opposition allies
for the lack of opposition unity. "To say that the HZhK is deliberately
going it alone is inadmissible," an HZhK lawmaker, Grigor Harutiunian,
said in parliament earlier in the day. He said they rejected
Demirchian’s offer to preserve the HZhK-led Artarutyun alliance.
Two other leading opposition parties, Artur Baghdasarian’s Orinats
Yerkir and Artashes Geghamian’s National Unity, have also decided to
contest the elections on their own. Most local observers say this
will make it easier for Armenia’s leadership to retain its control
of the National Assembly.