DASHNAKTSUTYUN THINKS REPUBLICAN PRESIDENT IS NOT BENEFICIAL
Lragir, Armenia
July 27 2007
The Republican Party got absolute majority in the parliamentary
election, but it does not necessarily determine the outcome of the
presidential election, Armen Rustamyan, representative of the ARF
Dashnaktsutyun’s Supreme Body, stated July 27 at the National Press
Club. "It is stated directly or indirectly that the outcome of the
parliamentary election will affect symmetrically the outcome of the
presidential election. I think this is not the right forecast regarding
the political developments and the current situation in Armenia."
He thinks the electoral system in Armenia has faults, such as vote
tampering or intimidation. "And this is the reason why the voters
do not use their right to vote fully. This right is either tampered
or taken away under pressure. Both methods are used in Armenia one
way or another. And it will take us long to get rid of this," Armen
Rustamyan says. According to him, the presidential election will also
have faults. "For the time being, we will make efforts to reduce these
faults. There is an important circumstance, however, which will make
the presidential election different from the parliamentary election,"
Armen Rustamyan says. According to him, this circumstance is that the
faults of the electoral system are revealed especially in the voting
under the majority system, meanwhile the presidential election is
closer to the voting under the proportional system when the entire
country is one electoral district.
"And I think it can affect the outcome of the presidential election
and also make the conduct of the voting to president more political.
And this is the underlying issue," says the representative of the
ARF Dashnaktsutyun’s Supreme Body. According to him, it is essential
to the future of the state to hold a better presidential election
than the parliamentary election. Armen Rustamyan reasserted that
Dashnaktsutyun will name its own candidate, and considering his
partisan experience, Armen Rustamyan assured that the candidate will
be a member of the party. However, he declined to mention names. He
says the Supreme Meeting will name the candidate. Armen Rustamyan only
says Dashnaktsutyun will not support another candidate and will not
name a candidate from another party but will name its own candidate.
The representative of the Supreme Body of the ARF Dashnaktsutyun Armen
Rustamyan repeated the ARF Bureau member Vahan Hovanisyan’s statement
he had made a few weeks ago that a non-Republican president will
help sustain the balance of powers. In this sense, Armen Rustamyan
contradicts to the Republican speaker of the National Assembly Tigran
Torosyan. Torosyan said in an interview with the Aravot Daily on
July 27 that after the adoption of amendments to the Constitution the
president is strong if he has the support of the parliament majority.
"The ideas of government vary. Because if we imagine the administrative
force, the force of the administrative resource of the government,
if we think that the state must be like a mechanism for pressure,
in this sense the authoritarian government is the strongest. However,
we know how such governments end up, how it happens," Armen Rustamyan
says, mentioning that the force of the government must first of all
rely on true concepts and public confidence. "Armenia lacks this most
of all and needs such a government," Armen Rustamyan says. He says
in this sense we will benefit if the president, the prime minister
and the parliament majority belong to the same force.