CANDIDATE OF ARF DASHNAKTSUTYUN AGAINST MYTHS

Lragir, Armenia
Dec 24 2007

Vahan Hovanisyan, presidential candidate from the ARF Dashnaktsutyun,
commented on rumors that come on the eve of the presidential election
in a news conference on December 24. Vahan Hovanisyan says the
first myth is that everything is predetermined, and the outcome
of the presidential election is already known. Vahan Hovanisyan
thinks the rumors are not the result of self-confidence of the
authors but the opposite feeling. The presidential candidate from
the ARF Dashnaktsutyun thinks when everything is predetermined, they
announce that a heated debate and competition is expected. And when
they say everything has been predetermined, the self-confidence is
mere pretension, Vahan Hovanisyan thinks.

He thinks the polls which give the highest popular rating to Serge
Sargsyan, and Vahan Hovanisyan is an outsider, are also false. The ARF
Dashnaktsutyun says this is the second myth which is shaped by polls
which are not trustworthy. "Especially what refers to us, since we
hold our polls to make sure our tactics, what refers to us, we doubt
their reliability because you might remember the results of polls by
people specializing in public polls suggested a rating for the ARF
Dashnaktsutyun which got 3-4 times more votes in the parliamentary
election," Vahan Hovanisyan says. According to him, the polls they
have conducted suggest that his rating is three times higher than he
is said to have, and it tends to grow, and Vahan Hovanisyan is the
second. The candidate from the ARF Dashnaktsutyun declines to tell who
the second is, noting that the difference is striking but shrinking.

Vahan Hovanisyan says he does not believe that Serge Sargsyan’s
rating is as high as the pollsters say. He also disbelieves that
Ter-Petrosyan’s rating is 52 percent, as Ter-Petrosyan’s team claims.

The candidate from the ARF Dashnaktsutyun doubts not only the local
but also the foreign polls which offer government propaganda for
an objective poll, such as the British ComRes or the U.S. Gallup
Institute, that a foreign authoritative organization cannot tamper
results of polls. "Sure they can," Vahan Hovanisyan says, adding that
false polls are conducted in both the U.K. and the United States. It
is important who orders, Vahan Hovanisyan notes.

"I can tell you the following. I remembered an example when several
polls were reported as sham in the U.K. and the United States. The same
is in Russia. I cannot see a major problem there. Besides, I think
it is very important who orders a poll. There is another peculiarity
in Armenia. Public polls do not always reflect the truth because of
the answers of people. People in Armenia are cautious, or have become
cautious, and their answers, especially when their identity is fixed,
it may differ from the real picture," Vahan Hovanisyan says.

He also noted that public polls do not have a considerable importance
to them because everything has just started. Another myth, according to
Vahan Hovanisyan, is that in the election campaign the frank criticize
and call for demolishing everything, noting that the ARF Dashnaktsutyun
is against calls for demolishing everything, and on the other hand,
it is against efforts to cover the present with concrete.