WHAT WILL RAFFI HOVANNISIAN DECIDE?

Lragir.am
08-11-2007 14:50:49

Larissa Alaverdyan, member of the Heritage Party’s parliamentary
faction, stated in a discussion at the National Press Club on
November 8 she does not think the opposition will join to put
up a common candidate, and there will be a few poles before the
presidential election. "Stronger around one pole, the groups which
have government levers, and distinctly opposition, non-pro-government,
because sometimes it is difficult to define whether a given force
is opposition, or for the time being it is non-pro-government,"
Larissa Alaverdyan says. She gives the example of the parliamentary
election. She says the Bargavach Hayastan Party tried to appear as
opposition but time showed that "simply at that time they were not
in government yet, as a political force, not as a group of people."

"As soon as a chance occurred, this party became part of the
government.

Now I am saying that there are parties which, some parties are stating
they are "neither government, nor opposition, we are centrist." It
is difficult to understand what center is in the current situation
in Armenia," Larissa Alaverdyan says.

She says there are political forces which have rather ambitious
aspirations before the presidential election but they lack a clear
political platform.

"It is not only the All-Armenian Movement and Mr. Levon Ter-Petrosyan
but also the parties which have been presenting themselves as rigid
opposition for all these years," Larissa Alaverdyan says. She adds
however that those forces did not display the right civil stance and
braveness at the right time.

"As of today, as a member of parliament of the Heritage faction,
i should note that there is uncertainly, it is not certain what
decision Raffi Hovannisian will make and whether he will be a
presidential candidate, and the other developments are not known. The
rest seems to become clear now that some pole is nevertheless forming
in the opposition. The first president Levon Ter-Petrosyan and the
All-Armenian Movement, as well as some groups and NGOs supporting
the All-Armenian Movement are already trying to create at least one
of the poles, if not the strongest," Larissa Alaverdyan says. She
says her statement has nothing to do with her attitude toward this
pole and the slogans of this pole. "However, as a keen observer I can
see that there are ambitions, and the forces or individuals who have
these ambitions seem to lack the potential with which they could be
at least one of the poles of the opposition," Larissa Alaverdyan says.