THIRD BY MISTAKE AND ALONE BY FATE
James Hakobyan

Lragir, Armenia
Feb 7 2008

An interesting thing is observed about the campaign of the presidential
candidate Serge Sargsyan. When the other main or influential candidates
address people, a group of activists stand beside them who are usually
referred to as the political team of the given candidate. The quality
of those teams is another issue, of course, but it is a fact that
they are there and they are behind the back of their candidate, in
the direct sense of the word because only future will show how they
back their candidate.

In the case of Serge Sargsyan, at least judging by his televised
images, behind his back is only his slogan "Go Armenia" and nothing
else. Meanwhile, the Armenian TV channels would hardly spare
nice images to cover Serge Sargsyan’s campaign. In other words,
if there were a team, it would be shown immediately. Consequently,
either Serge Sargsyan’s team is not worthwhile to show or there is
no team at all. Many would consider the Republican Party, activists,
leadership as a team. Meanwhile, amazingly the MIAK Party participates
in Serge Sargsyan’s campaign more assiduously and actively than the
Republican Party. Moreover, the MIAK Party was honored to launch the
campaign earlier, which is certainly a violation of the law but we
know that it is the greatest honor for the government: the beloved
is allowed to violate the law more.

The fact that Serge Sargsyan dislikes the Republican Party became
evident from the parliamentary campaign when the leader of the party
held the campaign almost alone, at least no less lonely than his own
presidential campaign. Maybe the presidential candidate is trying to
appear to the public as non-partisan, therefore he is conducting an
individual campaign, and calls for solidarity and consolidation of the
nation’s potential. However, since the same was in the parliamentary
election which is a race of political parties, it is evidence that the
problem is other. Serge Sargsyan is a realist and realizes that the
personnel of the Republican Party are not fit for a campaign and for
winning the support of the society. Therefore, perhaps, the choice
was between worse and the worst, and it was decided that the prime
minister will electioneer alone, having no one at the background.

Not only does it keep away from people’s eye the activists who cannot
win any support and may even cause one’s rating to fall, but also it
will Serge Sargsyan freedom in the political developments after the
election. In other words, if Levon Ter-Petrosyan says in case he is
elected president, he will make appointments in accordance with the
work they do, Serge Sargsyan prefers doing all the work alone. Not in
order to appoint himself to all the posts later. Serge Sargsyan has
enough posts in public administration, sports, science and education.

The reason is that Serge Sargsyan realizes the importance of shaping a
new political team after the presidential election because you cannot
go too far with that "vehicle of the past", meanwhile Serge Sargsyan
will hardly be satisfied with a single nomination for presidency. The
year 2013 is still ahead, and a new team is needed to reach the
destination. However, perhaps this awareness is not full because
otherwise shaping a new team would have been considered before the
election rather than after the election. Although it is also possible
that Serge Sargsyan does not forbid his team from appearing behind
him but the team avoids doing that.