THE TOLERANCE LIMIT FOR ELECTION FRAUD IS EXHAUSTED

Yerkir.am
March 10, 2007

The upcoming parliamentary elections are more important than any
preceding elections. The reason for this is that presidential elections
will follow next year. All political forces view the parliamentary
elections as the start for the presidential elections.

The other important consideration is that after the constitutional
amendments the new parliament will have a much more important role in
the country’s political life. There are some other considerations of
"local" significance like the participation in the upcoming elections
of Prosperous Armenia and Dashink ("Alliance") Parties that have had
no political activities so far.

On March 7, member of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF)
Bureau, Deputy Chairman of the National Assembly Vahan Hovhannissian
commented on the pre-electoral situation in the country. Hovhannissian
stated that collection of passport numbers was practiced by some
forces in the past as well, but today this practice has become very
widely spread. Collecting passport serial numbers is internationally
acknowledged as a crime.

Hovhannissian called on citizens not to give their passports to anyone
because if someone gets another person’s passport the latter can be
enlisted in a party as a member, or some crimes can be committed with
this passport, etc.

Hovhannissian then addressed those who collect passport saying that
people can give their passport numbers to ten people but this does not
mean they will give their votes. The law enforcement bodies know about
the practice of collecting passport numbers but cannot do anything
because there are no complaints from people.

Commenting on the increasing volume of charity actions in the run-up
for the elections, Hovhannissian noted that charity can be considered
charity only in as much as it does not entail any trade or any
expectations in return for charity. ARF has been engaged in charity
acts for several decades. ARF does charity through its sister-body –
the Armenian Relief Society. However, the latter’s activities are in
no way related to elections. "If you look at the ARS’ s activities
you will see that the ARS has always worked very actively irrespective
of whether this or that year was an election year."

A number of surveys and prognosis have been made recently. The most
probable percentage for the ARF is indicated to be 10% in these
prognoses.

Hovhannissian noted that more serious studies indicate greater
percentage while some media publicize results of sociological surveys
conducted by some unknown organizations which might be pursuing the
political goal of artificially decreasing ARF’s role and influencing
the voters’ attitude. Hovhannissian believes " buying" sociologists’
services is a very widespread election technology in Armenia. Some
sociologists have offered their services to ARF but the party does
not pay any attention to such manipulations. "Our people are fed up
both with cheating politicians and with cheating sociologists."

Hovhannissian also commented on the US State Department’s 2006
report on human rights protection. The report states that people in
Armenia do not have an opportunity to change the regime in power. "I
do not hinder change of the regime by the people. I call on people
to change the regime and I have always said this. Change of power
through lawful means, change of power through elections without any
hysteria and clashes is a normal phenomenon. If people consider that
a change of power is necessary then they should go for it without
waiting for anyone’s permission," Hovhannissian stated.

Hovhannissian said it’s not a secret that the previous elections
held in Armenia did not fully meet international or European
standards. There are no guarantees that these standards will be met
this time because such guarantees can only be created by voters who
are responsible for their votes. "People who are disappointed and do
not believe in anything saying that they will not go to elections
create opportunities for election fraud," Hovhannissian said. He
called on the voters to be active in the elections and the members
of the electoral commissions to be brave and not to sell themselves.

Hovhannissian stated ARF is one of the political forces that have set a
goal for themselves to prevent all violations in the electoral process.

"We are not like those parties that suddenly announce that they are
the guarantors for fair elections. The state is the only guarantor
for the fair elections but if we are part of the government we are
to some extent responsible for the elections as well. ARF is ready
to take its share of responsibility to prevent violations so that
the voters are not fully discouraged," Hovhannissian said adding, "I
think all stakeholders realize that the tolerance limit for election
fraud is exhausted."

Hovhannissian commented on the Armenian Chess Federation’s recent
statement that they would support the Republican Party in the
elections. Hovhannissian stated that in a free country anyone,
irrespective of his profession, can support whichever force he
wants. At the same time, he noted it is not possible that all chess
players would support one party.

There was a time when a whole class supported only one party because
there were no alternatives. "We believe ARF is the party for everyone
– the peasants, the workers, the intellectuals, the businessmen,
the soldiers. But I think it is not normal to assume that all these
people would necessarily have to support the ARF and we will never
take an approach like this."

Hovhannissian commented on the rather widespread opinion that the
Republican Party and Prosperous Armenia Party will be the main forces
to bid for victory in the upcoming elections. He noted that only those
who can see just one level of political struggle think so. Such people
have no idea about ideological struggle. They see political struggle
only in terms of the number of offices of this or that party.

Answering the journalists’ observation that Stepan Demirchian, one
of the opposition leaders, stated that the government is to blame
for the opposition forces’ failure to form an opposition alliance
Hovhannissian stated that even though the government is not always
unanimous on all issues but it has not intervened in this issue at all.

"Moreover, I believe that such an alliance would be very useful in
terms of healthier development of the society rather than going
to elections in 10-15 pieces," Hovhannissian said. Hovhannissian
believes the united opposition would have more chances of getting
more seats in the parliament and would have a greater political
weight since "any regime is cleaner and works better if it has a
serious counter-balance."

In this context the possibility of ARF’s becoming opposition was
considered.

Hovhannissian noted, "If ARF becomes opposition I can assure you it
will be a highly efficient opposition."