ALLY PREDICTS EASY SARKISIAN WIN
By Astghik Bedevian

Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
Sept 7 2007

Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian will cruise to a comfortable victory in
next year’s presidential election, a leading member of his Republican
Party of Armenia (HHK) predicted on Friday.

"Serzh Sarkisian has no alternative," said Karen Karapetian, the
leader of the HHK faction in parliament. "We will score a very
convincing victory."

Karapetian downplayed an opinion poll which found that the Armenian
premier would have finished fourth if the presidential ballot had been
held in July. "When be began our campaign for the [May] parliamentary
elections our rating was also low. But thanks to our correctly
organized work, the HHK got the largest number of votes," he said.

The HHK’s tight grip on many government bodies and substantial
financial resources is believed to the been instrumental in its
landslide victory in those polls. Sarkisian and his party are expected
to heavily rely on those levers during the presidential race as well.

Karapetian said that Sarkisian’s victory will be facilitated by
the Armenian opposition’s anticipated failure to field a single
presidential candidate. "I suppose that there will be four or five
opposition candidates in the running," he told a news conference.

"This means that the entire opposition electorate will be split. This
also means that not all opposition-minded people will vote for
[opposition candidates.]"

The lack of opposition unity was also cited on Thursday by a senior
member of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun), the
HHK’s junior partner in the governing coalition. Artashes Shahbazian
said Dashnaktsutyun’s presidential candidate will be Sarkisian’s main
challenger and could even defeat him.

"We are not worried about that because a very weighty force is behind
us and because we already know which other parties will back our
candidate," said Karapetian.

The HHK leader told RFE/RL last month that the Prosperous Armenia
Party of tycoon Gagik Tsarukian, the second largest parliament force
represented in the government, will also endorse Sarkisian.
From: Baghdasarian