DASHNAKS VOW ‘SERIOUS’ ELECTION CHALLENGE TO SARKISIAN
By Ruzanna Stepanian

Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
Sept 6 2007

The candidate of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun)
will be Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian’s main challenger in the
forthcoming presidential elections, a senior member of the party
represented in his cabinet claimed on Thursday.

"Now that the [Sarkisian-led] Republican Party and the Prosperous
Armenia Party … are acting as an alliance supporting a single
presidential candidate, Dashnaktsutyun, which came in third in the
[May parliamentary] elections, is becoming the number two contender,"
said Artashes Shahbazian, secretary of the Dashnaktsutyun faction
in parliament.

"Dashnaktsutyun is a party operating in the entire territory of
Armenia. It has a viable structure, ideology, political program and
team. It is becoming the main rival [of the Republican candidate,]"
he told journalists

Shahbazian argued that Dashnaktsutyun won more votes than any of the
opposition parties that ran for parliament.

According to official vote results, the nationalist party got 12.8
percent of the vote, earning it 16 seats in the 131-member National
Assembly. The Armenian opposition refused to recognize the election
outcome, alleging serious fraud.

Sarkisian, who formed a new government after his party’s landslide
election victory, agreed to let Dashnaktsutyun retain three of its four
ministerial portfolios despite his failure to secure its endorsement
of his presidential bid. Dashnaktsutyun also made it clear that it
will not bear responsibility for the work of government ministries
not headed by its members.

Some opposition leaders and media commentators have speculated that
the Diaspora-linked party’s main mission is to "steal" votes from
opposition presidential candidates and thereby facilitate Sarkisian’s
victory.

Shahbazian insisted, however, that his party will be seriously vying
for the post of president and thinks that it is capable of defeating
Sarkisian. "We are a political force for which contesting elections is
not a means of staying in the political arena," he said. "We take this
quite seriously, which means that we have weighed up things a lot."

"Taking into account a number of circumstances, we think that we have
quite real chances [of victory,]" added the Dashnaktsutyun leader.

Dashnaktsutyun will choose its presidential hopeful at a party congress
due next week. Press reports have said that two of its top leaders,
Vahan Hovannisian and Armen Rustamian, are in pole position to secure
the nomination.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress