VAHAN HOVHANNISIAN: ARFD’S STRUGGLE IS FOR GENERATING CIVIL CONSENT
Noyan Tapan
Nov 28, 2007
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 28, NOYAN TAPAN. The preelection period of the
presidential elections of February 19, 2008 has not started yet,
but the preparatory period is underway, during which candidates,
political forces try to give their different evaluations to the
situation. Vahan Hovhannisian, the RA National Assembly Vice-Speaker,
said this in his interview to Noyan Tapan correspondent. However,
according to him, "the following thing is the most important today:
any force or candidate should understand very well whether there is
a public demand for his coming out to the political arena."
In response to the question about some tension conditioned by the first
RA President’s intention to run for the elections, V. Hovhannisian said
that in his opinion, "some media and political figures artificially try
to present a representative of the current power and a representative
of the former power as poles, and when there are poles, some tension
emerges inevitably." V. Hovhannisian also gave assurance that during
the coming weeks "it will become obvious that there are different
force centers in Armenia with their political approaches." According
to him, in that circumstance the people already will not be obliged
"to see some inevitability in election" or to choose between the bad
and the worst, looking for the least of the two evils. "There will be
such variants that polarization as rather negative phenomenon will
come out of our public life, as polarization automatically means to
divide society into black and white," the NA Vice-Speaker said at the
same time mentioning that such a division supposes antagonism, and
political consent becomes impossible under such conditions. According
to V. Hovhannisian, ARFD’s struggle is for generating a civil consent.