ARMEN RUSTAMIAN: BAD LANGUAGE IS NOT CRITERION OF DETERMINATION
Noyan Tapan
Jan 17 2007
YEREVAN, JANUARY 17, NOYAN TAPAN. Vahan Hovhannisian, who has
been nominated by the ARF as presidential candidate, is ready for
political debates with all the other candidates. Armen Rustamian –
the head of V. Hovhannisian’s pre-election headquarters, member of the
ARF Armenia Supreme Body – stated at the January 17 press conference
that the purpose of the party’s propaganda tactics is to be able to
show the merits of its candidate and present the goals and tasks of
the party in a convincing way.
In his words, the essence of counter campaign against the ARF is
to accuse the party of lack of determination. The reason is that
the Dashnaktsutyun tries to refrain from black PR against other
candidates. As A. Rustamian put it, bad language is not a criterion
of determination: an attempt to create an illusion of determination
is made when abuses are used.
A. Rustamian announced that the ARF will not listen to the Yerevan
municipality’s calls not to organize processions in central streets
and main avenues of Yerevan due to heavy traffic and cold weather. He
pointed out that the political forces have few means of conducting
propaganda campaign so the ARF intends to use all the opportunities
given to it by the Constitution. Moreover, the ARF calls on all
the political forces – election participants to carry out efficient
work aimed at making voters most active because it is an important
guarantee of fair elections.
According to A. Rustamian, the major precondition for holding
"clean" elections is establishing proper control over elections. In
this issue the ARF is ready to cooperate with all the political
forces participating in the elections. The ARF proposes that united
headquarters to control the process of elections should be created
where the candidates may make joint statements if information about
electoral violations from various polling stations and headquarters
is confirmed. A. Rustamian considered it important that candidates’s
complaints about violations must be substantiated by facts. He said
that there is already information that some officials attempt to abuse
their position by taking certain actions in favor of the authorities’
candidate. He stated that in case of being confirmed, this information
will be made public.