ARMENPRESS
UNITED COMMUNISTS TO SUPPORT SERZH SARKISIAN’S
PRESIDENTIAL BID
YEREVAN, JANUARY 15, ARMENPRESS: Chairman of the
United Communist Party of Armenia (UCPA) said today
some 70 percent of the party members would vote for
prime minister Serzh Sarkisian when they will go to
polling stations on February 19 to elect a next
president of the country.
Yuri Manukian was expelled from the Communist Party
of Armenia several years ago for dissent and set up an
alternative communist party.
Speaking at a news conference today he said during
several visits to regional chapters of his party he
made sure that the majority of party members would
cast their ballots for Serzh Sarkisian.
He said the other 30 percent would in all
likelihood vote for Vahan Hovhanesian, nominated by
the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF), because
of its social ideology.
Manukian predicted no run-off and an outright
victory for Serzh Sarkisian. He also predicted that
some 1.6 million eligible voters would go to the polls
and 1 million of them would vote for the prime
minister.
Manukian also urged rivals to avoid smearing each
other and build their campaigns by advertising their
election platforms.
`We think that the Republican party is the best
placed political force to withstand the challenges
faced by our country. We shall do our best for
preservation of political stability and maintaining
the environment of tolerance,’ Manukian said.
Yuri Manukian also urged the former president Levon
Ter-Petrosian, who some political analysts say will be
Serzh Sarkisian’s main rival, to withdraw his
candidacy in order not ` to split the people’s unity
and atmosphere of tolerance.’
`I think Levon Ter-Petrosian should stay up to the
mark (of the country’s first post-Soviet president)
and not to downgrade to the level of some groundless
people, who also are competing for presidency,’
Manukian said.