Lragir, Armenia
Jan 11 2008
LEVON TER-PETROSYAN: THOSE WHO ASK THIS QUESTION SHOULD PROTECT
How will you protect your votes on February 20 if on February 19 the
government tampers and steals them? The reporters asked this question
to Ter-Petrosyan on January 11 who held his first news conference
since his political activity. The first president said with certain
irony that this issue is raised substantially by a number of media.
`How shall we protect our votes? It is a fantastic question. Those
who ask this question should protect them. They cannot demand that I
protect the votes. There is a government, there is a Constitutional
Court, there is a Prosecutor General, there is a Central Election
Commission. What are they for? They are supposed to protect the votes
of people,’ Levon Ter-Petrosyan says. According to him, nothing will
change in the country until this consciousness becomes established.
`As to me, as to what I will be doing, if I see that the votes were
tampered, I will do what I have been doing so far. Knowing my rights,
knowing our Constitution, the laws, the international laws, the
international legislation, I will take all the moves stemming from
this legislation. Demonstration, walkout, piquet, trial. This is
going to be my track,’ Levon Ter-Petrosyan says, noting that he is
not going to break fences like Vazgen Manukyan in 1996, at whom the
reporters hinted as the victim of the first tampered election.
`I am not going to break fences like the man you hinted at, I am not
going to seize buildings, break the head of the speaker of
parliament. That candidate failed for that reason. In 1996 he got
41-42 percent, in the next election he got 13 percent, in 2003 he got
0.9 percent. This is the attitude of people toward this terrible, how
shall I put it, blow at the state in 96,’ Levon Ter-Petrosyan says
noting that people do not accept this style of work.
By the way, the first president does not think either that the
presidential election of 1996 was falsified. He says Vazgen Manukyan
appealed to the Constitutional Court against election fraud but was
unable to prove it. `I respect his opinion and belief. However,
politics is neither opinion nor belief. Politics is a legal process
connected with the state,’ Levon Ter-Petrosyan says noting that since
the election of 1996 Vazgen Manukyan has submitted the records of
over 1000 polling stations to the court but could not prove.
`There were about 1039 records of 1600, there were inaccuracies in
several dozens of records,’ Ter-Petrosyan says noting that thousands
of such inaccuracies can be found in every election.
`It is a legal process. This is not a problem that Manukyan or I
should solve. There was a legal process, the CEC made a decision, the
Constitutional Court made a decision, the international observation
organizations observed irregularities, drawbacks in some commissions,
but they recognized the outcome of the election,’ Levon Ter-Petrosyan
says. According to him, the international observers did not recognize
the elections in Albania and Belarus, in Armenia in 1996 they
recognized.