MEMBER OF ARF BUREAU DOES NOT RULE OUT SWEEPING CHANGE

Lragir.am
18-06-2007 13:55:07

The ARF Dashnaktsutyun will name president of Armenia, which means it
will be competing with the ARF candidate, most probably Serge Sargsyan,
but it does not necessarily mean clash and swearing, Vahan Hovanisyan,
member of the ARF Bureau, said in a news conference on June 18 at the
National Press Club. "It is not an acceptable way of struggle. I do not
know, as far as I know the Republican Party has not named president
yet. When it names, it will be clearer, but whoever they name,
we are not adversaries with the Republican Party. We are partners,
we have walked a long way together, we only have our own approaches
towards lots of issues," Vahan Hovanisyan says. Among other issues
he mentions the social sphere and battle against corruption.

Besides, Vahan Hovanisyan reminds that if the president is not
Republican, there is nothing to fear because the Republicans remain
parliament majority.

"There is no need to fear coups, shocks, for there are counterweights.

Meanwhile, when both the president and the parliament are Republican,
the balance seems to be broken. In this sense, I think not the
specific political interests but the interests of the country should
be considered.

After all, it does not matter who is elected. Armenia already
has mechanisms which will prevent the country from plunging into a
dictatorship, although these mechanisms are not fully established. I
think a Dashnak president is the best for their development," Vahan
Hovanisyan thinks.

In answer to the question why the society which made the Republicans
absolute majority should not elect the Republican candidate,
especially if according to the ARF Dashnaktsutyun and generally,
the parliamentary election was free and fair, Vahan Hovanisyan says:
"I am happy that our election was evaluated highly, but we have certain
peculiarities in our country where the voter and the vote are not the
same." In this context, he thinks the picture may differ in 2008,
especially that in the presidential election the political factor
gets at its highest, and the extra-political factors are reduced.

Vahan Hovanisyan does not expect a political shake-up after the
election of 2008. He says the shake-up follows the parliamentary
election which has already taken place. But if by shake-up we mean
defection from one faction to another, Vahan Hovanisyan does not rule
this out although he does not consider it as a shake-up. "A shake-up
may first of all happen by making everyone respect the law. In Armenia
today the arrangement is against the law, certain political forces
have political arrangements, which think their continuity is in the
ideological confrontation, but the so-called elite of our country is
divided by their attitude towards the law because idea has nothing
to do. All are equal, but some are more equal than others, Orwell
said. This is the situation. If all become equal, really equal,
a real shake-up will happen," Vahan Hovanisyan says.