GOVERNMENT CANDIDATE NEEDS NO ARMY

Lragir, Armenia
Feb 7 2008

During the question and answer session of the parliament on February 6
Member of Parliament Zaruhi Postanjyan, Heritage Party, asked the prime
minister about his attitude toward the fact that the celebration of the
army day had been turned into election campaign for the prime minister.

The prime minister said: "I don’t need to turn the celebration of the
armed force into election campaign. Upon my word, I do not need that
because I have doubt about the decision of the people in that hall. I
worked with those people for 15 years and I know their attitude and
I did not need that," Serge Sargsyan says.

In answer to the other question of Ms. Postanjyan if it is not a
violation of the law when the prime minister running in the election
does not take a vacation, Serge Sargsyan said the provision on vacation
does not concern people who occupy political posts.

However, Zaruhi Postanjyan objected that the law provides that the
prime minister running in the election does not take a vacation
in case he also performs the duties of the president. Meanwhile,
Armenia still has an acting president, she noted. In answer to this
Serge Sargsyan said he will ask Republican MP Davit Harutiunyan to
explain the law to Zaruhi Postanjyan who is a lawyer. Serge Sargsyan
said if anyone doubts his legal right not to take a vacation, they
can go to the Constitutional Court or any other court.

"Finally, as you know, a number of observers are observing the election
in Armenia, and if the observers say I have violated the law, as
you said, and inflicted great harm onto this country, I will think
on these issues. But if they do not say, please don’t raise this
issue after the election," Serge Sargsyan says. As to the concerns
that people are forced to participate in Serge Sargsyan’s rallies,
the prime minister says he has heard a lot of concerns that people
are forced, laws are breached, public polls are sham, etc.

"Who forces them to come if they do not come voluntarily?" Serge
Sargsyan asks. "You can meet with those people, to make sure there
is a chain of policemen or armed troops who force those people to stay.

Besides, do we need additional fifty or a hundred people? If you
bother to do a sum to find out how many schools there are in Erebuni
community and multiply by the number of teachers, you will get a
small number. Do we need that small number to cause dissatisfaction
in people?" Serge Sargsyan says.

He stated that the reputation of the new president of Armenia is dear
to him. "I will do my best for the reputation of the new president
of Armenia. However, I do not rule out that there will be members
of parliament, separate political forces which will be saying what
they want over the upcoming 5 years, independent from anything,"
says the presidential candidate prime minister.