Russia & CIS Presidential Bulletin
December 6, 2007

TIME FOR REGISTERING PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES RUNNING OUT IN …

The Armenian Central Elections Commission (CEC) will stop receiving
applications for the presidential race at 6:00 p.m. local time on
Thursday.

Former parliamentary speaker and leader of the Orinats Yerkir (Land
of Law) opposition party Artur Bagdasarian applied for registration
on Wednesday, commission spokesperson Tatevik Oganian told Interfax.

The commission has also received applications from Prime Minister and
Republican Party Chairman Serzh Sargsyan, ex-prime minister and
opposition National Democratic Union leader Vazgen Manukian and
Armenia’s first president Levon Ter-Petrosian.

Ter-Petrosian is the only self-nominated candidate.

Former adviser of the Karabakh president Arman Melikian and former
world boxing champion Israel Akopkokhian also wish to run for
president.

The registration process started on November 21, and the elections
will take place on February 19, 2008.

Ter-Petrosian said in an interview published in the Thursday issue of
the Kommersant newspaper the candidates would do their best to
prevent falsifications in the elections.

We will do our best to avoid falsifications. We have suggested
printing voting papers abroad and made a related appeal to European
entities. We have also suggested marking voters’ fingers with a
special ink. If they do that, we will have a chance for normal
elections. Yet they may invent something else, he said.

Ter-Petrosian also said he would not allow a revolution in Armenia.

There will be no revolution. I will not allow violence and violations
on the part of the opposition, he said.

He disagreed with the opinion that rallies of his supporters
resembled ‘color’ revolutions. This is not so. We are mobilizing
people.

There is no legal change of administration without that. It would be
wrong to make such comparisons, Ter-Petrosian said.

There are no pro-Russian or pro-American forces in Armenia, he said.

I can bet that Russia will not repeat in Armenia what it has done in
Georgia or Ukraine. That will not happen, as long as I am the
alternative to Sargsyan. Ukrainian and Georgian models will not work
here. This country is not divided into pro-Russian and pro-American
forces, he said.

Asked what he would do in case of his victory in the elections, Ter-
Petrosian said he would normalize relations with Armenia’s neighbors.

We should balance our foreign political strategy and settle conflicts
with our neighbors: Azerbaijan, Turkey, Georgia and Iran, he said.