VAZGEN MANUKYAN IS PREPARING FOR PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS

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[02:47 pm] 16 May, 2007

Vazgen Manukyan, the leader of the National Democratic Union (NDU),
will put forward his candidature for the 2008 presidential elections,
though he hasn’t run in the parliament elections.

The NDU leader states that there is no need to be disappointed with
people: people were active; simply about 25 percent of votes were
dissipated because the opposition did not come together. It is natural
that "the more people are fed up with the government, the more they
accuse the opposition. In fact, the opposition, which knew they would
not win the election, cheated people."

In this connection Vazgen Manukyan has questions.

"Year by year vote tampering becomes more and more invisible for an
observer. This is the culmination. A regular army is needed against a
regular army. They say election bribes were given out of a car. Where
is the opposition? Why didn’t they break the car and take the person
to the court of law. Why didn’t the citizens scare and beat the person
giving out bribes?

It is not clear to me. It is not possible in any country to present
intelligent programs and come to power."

The NDU leader suggests accepting that the Republican Party has 200
thousand voters, which is not salvation or comfort for the Republican
Party. "There are 2 million 200 thousand voters in Armenia and only 200
thousand voted for the Republican Party. The other 2 million do not
accept this political party, most of them even hate Republicans. It
appears that with only 200 thousand votes they can oppose to 2
million and monopolize power in the country. It is real disgrace and
cannot last long," stated Vazgen Manukyan in a news conference on
May 16. According to him, the 450 thousand votes that the Republican
Party got were the result of multiple voting and violence.

The parliamentary elections will lead to a positive thing; the
opposition will undergo changes, Vazgen Manukyan said. If you want to
change the government, you need an organized opposition, he stated. In
this case, everything will be easier because "the Republican Party went
too far, took everything in its hands and hopefully the parties which
are considered pro-government will act as opposition." The NDU offers
a proposal to the parties which were elected to the RoA Parliament:
Orinats Yerkir, Dashnaktsutyun, Prosperous Armenia and Heritage must
come together against the Republicans and go all the way to struggle.