SHAVARSH KOCHARIAN URGED NOT TO "TURN THE ELECTIONS INTO CORRIDA"

Mediamax
December 4, 2007

Yerevan /Mediamax/. Leader of the National-Democratic Party (NDP)
Shavarsh Kocharian stated in Yerevan today that "only [candidate for
the position of the President] Vazgen Manukian may rise above the
fuss between the former and the present authorities of Armenia and
raise issues of national importance".

Mediamax reports that Shavarsh Kocharian stated that the upcoming
presidential elections of February 19 of 2008 will not be solving at
bottom the issue of shift of power, since, in accordance with the
renovated Constitution, the newly-elected President will not have
direct influence on the parliamentary majority.

"It is very important not to turn the elections into corrida and
hold a civilized political struggle for the elector to be able to
get determined during the pre-election campaign", Leader of NDP stated.

Shavarsh Kocharian stated that his party decided to support the
candidature of the Leader of the National-Democratic Union Vazgen
Manukian, since it does not accept the system of state administration,
oriented to a concrete person, which is proposed by the Ex-President
of Armenia Levon Ter-Petrosian.

Shavarsh Kocharian stated that he is attentively following all the
speeches of the Ex-President and sees no changes in the approaches,
to which Levon Ter-Petrosian was adherent 10 years ago.