NON-PARTISAN MP QUESTIONS OPPOSITION’S CHANCES TO UNITE

ARMENPRESS
Sept 25 2007

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 25, ARMENPRESS: A non-partisan parliament member
Viktor Dalakian questioned today the willingness of major opposition
parties to close ranks and contest the 2008 presidential election
with a common candidate.

Speaking to a news conference he said only united the opposition can
compete with the pro-government candidate, but added that this looks
almost impossible.

Dalakian said ex-president Levon Ter-Petrosian will also join the race.

"Levon Ter-Petrosian’s injection and the decision of the Armenian
Revolutionary Federation (ARF) to nominate its own candidate will
prompt a very interesting struggle between leftwing and rightwing
political groups," Dalakian said, adding, however that ‘it is not
important who will be elected, what is important is how the next
president of the country is e elected," "Both inside the country and
outside it the president’s legitimacy must not be questioned," he said.

Also a deputy parliament speaker Vahan Hovhanesian from the ARF said
his party does not share the harsh criticism of ex-president Levon
Ter-Petrosian of the current administration, which he branded as
‘corrupt and criminal."

"Unlike Ter-Petrosian’s Armenian National Movement the ARF does not
shut its eyes to huge progress made by the country in the last decade,"
he said.

"No political party was banned since Ter-Petrosian’s resignation in
1998, no politically-motivated arrests were made," Hovhanesian said
implicating Ter-Petrosian’s ban of his party.

Hovhanesian said ARF is ready to call its three ministers in the
Cabinet or suspend their performance, depending on the will of its
two partners in the coalition government.