ARMENIAN PM CONFIDENT OF ELECTION WIN
By Emil Danielyan

Radio Liberty, Czech Republic
May 7 2007

Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian predicted that his Republican Party
of Armenia (HHK) will win this week’s parliamentary elections and
hit out at two other pro-establishment parties as he continued his
campaign swing through Yerevan at the weekend.

"There are just a few days remaining before the elections and it is
already obvious that the Republican Party of Armenia will receive
a majority of votes," he told more than a thousand supporters who
gathered in the city’s northern Arabkir district on Sunday.

"That means nobody will get more votes than the Republicans,"
Sarkisian said, speaking to RFE/RL after the speech. He would not
specify whether the HHK expects to win an absolute majority in the
new National Assembly.

Sarkisian has said before that he will be satisfied even if his party
garners 25 percent of the vote. Senior Republicans now say privately
that they are aiming for between 50 and 60 seats in the 131-member
legislature. In particular, they expect to grab at least 22 of the
41 seats distributed in single-mandate constituencies. The other 90
seats are contested on the party list basis.

The HHK ambitions might leave it in conflict with another election
frontrunner, the Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK) of Gagik Tsarukian, a
wealthy businessman close to President Robert Kocharian. BHK leaders
have said that they will get at least 400,000 votes matching the
official number of the party’s members. That would almost certainly
be enough to score a landslide victory in Saturday’s polls.

Sarkisian refused to comment on the BHK’s ambitious vote target. "Why
do you want me attack somebody?" he told RFE/RL. "I’m not criticizing
anyone. We’re just doing our job, and I think the results of our work
will be visible. You too will see them."

Still, the recently appointed premier, widely regarded as Kocharian’s
heir apparent, did take a swipe at Tsarukian in his speech, without
mentioning the latter by name. "Some of our rivals say they don’t
need power because they’ve got everything and simply want the people
to be better off," he said, citing a statement constantly repeated
by Tsarukian. "All of us want the people to be better off. But [the
question is] how?"

These and other HHK rivals, continued Sarkisian, "don’t want power
because they don’t know what power is" and lack a credible ideology
to lead the nation. "The Republican Party’s ideology is as follows:
We must always live in this world, live as Armenians," he said. That
requires a "perfect system of national security," a strong and
legitimate government, scores of new jobs, and adequate public
services, he added.

Sarkisian also echoed other top Republicans’ attacks on their junior
partner in the governing coalition, the Armenian Revolutionary
Federation (Dashnaktsutyun), over its campaign pledge to more than
triple modest state pensions. "Our rivals say they would sharply raise
pensions within a few months," he said. "We say no to that because
that’s adventurism, because that could ruin the functioning system
[of social security.]"

Sarkisian further urged Arabkir residents to vote for HHK candidates
running for parliament in two single-mandate constituencies covering
the district. He argued that the two relatively young businessmen
would relay local voters’ grievances to the country’s top leaders with
"lightning speed" but said nothing about their law-making abilities.

One of the candidates, Levon Sargsian, was elected to Armenia’s
outgoing parliament four years ago but has rarely been spotted there
by journalists. Some opposition leaders and media have branded him
a crime figure, a charge denied by the HHK leadership.

The other HHK candidate in Arabkir, Zohrab Zohrabian, is primarily
known for rebuilding a Soviet-era sports school for children and has
not been involved in national politics until now. As part of his
election campaign, Zohrabian financed the construction of a small
monument dedicated to Arabkir residents who fought and died during
the war with Azerbaijan. Sarkisian unveiled the monument, adjacent
to the venue of the rally, right after his speech.

The mother of one of the dead soldiers was among those who spoke at
the Republican rally which, as always, was preceded by a pop concert.

"We can see what [Sarkisian] has done and are proud of our army. He
must become our next president," she said, drawing cheers from
the crowd.

While agreeing to answer questions from RFE/RL, Sarkisian strongly
criticized the broadcaster’s coverage of his election campaign and,
in particular, news reports that quoted ordinary Armenians as saying
that they are forced or tricked to attend HHK rallies. Similar reports
have also appeared in some local newspapers.

"I very much hope that your radio station will conclude from my words
that it is not objective when it quotes somebody as saying that they
were forced to attend [HHK rallies,]" Sarkisian said. "You were present
[at today’s rally]. How many people were forcibly brought here?"

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress