WHAT IS A COMMON CANDIDATE?

Lragir, Armenia
Aug 3 2007

The problem of Armenia before the presidential election and in general
is the imperfection of the political sphere and the opposition,
Davit Shahnazaryan, All Armenian Movement, stated on August 3 at
the National Press Club. He says the government is the present of
the country, the opposition is the future and, unfortunately, there
are no preconditions for this future. "We must look for the mistakes
among us, and the evaluations that were voiced after the parliamentary
election by the opposition forces which in fact accused the society,
I think, were at least wrong," says Davit Shahnazaryan. He thinks the
attempts to look for the cause of the failure outside the opposition
are doomed. The member of the All Armenian Movement believes that if
the opposition’s current state persists, the government perhaps will
not need electoral fraud in the presidential voting. The society hates
the government but it also neglects the opposition, the AAM member
thinks. "The sooner all this is acknowledged, the sooner the opposition
draws the right conclusions, the more probable it will be that our
political system and the opposition as a political institution will
become established in Armenia. Otherwise, it is difficult to imagine
possibility for progress towards overcoming internal political,
social, economic and foreign challenges," Davit Shahnazaryan says.

He also does not understand the meaning of the "common candidate" of
the opposition. "If my friends, my colleagues, some 10 or 15 people,
are likely to name the common candidate, are there guarantees that
the society will accept this candidate? At a table, it is possible
to decide who the mediator will be, who the toast maker will be,
but it is not serious that 10 or 15 will name a common candidate,
without a political race. The common candidate must be the result of
a political race which must be based on programs and ideas," Davit
Shahnazaryan says. By saying political race he means the statement
of the stance of parties on internal and external political issues.