Radio Liberty, Czech Republic
Feb 17 2008

Sarkisian Says Will Win

By Ruzanna Khachatrian

Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian spoke of himself as the next president
of Armenia and pledged to ensure the proper conduct of Tuesday’s
presidential election as he rallied tens of thousands of people in
Yerevan on Sunday.

`We will win. That victory will belong to everyone, every citizen of
the Republic of Armenia,’ Sarkisian told the crowd that gathered in
the city’s Liberty Square the day after a similarly big rally staged
there by his main challenger, former President Levon Ter-Petrosian.

`I will be the president of all people. I will be the president of
both my voters and those of my compatriots who voted for other
candidates,’ he said, adding that he enjoys the support of a `silent
majority’ of Armenians opposed to `upheavals.’

Sarkisian would not say if he intends to win the election already in
the first round of voting. Western news agencies quoted him as saying
this week that he will garner more than 50 percent of the vote and
avoid a potentially risky run-off with one of the eight other
candidates. When asked by RFE/RL after his speech to confirm the
comments attributed to him, Sarkisian said: `Have you ever seen such
rallies in Armenia?’

As was the case during other campaign rallies held by Sarkisian
across the country, many in the crowd were civil servants and other
public sectors. Also, a large part of rally participants appeared to
have been bused from various regions of Armenia and even Georgia’s
Armenian-populated Javakheti region.

According to Javakheti Armenians present at the rally, the Georgian
nationals were brought to Yerevan overnight in at least 50 buses and
minibuses. `We are citizens of Georgia,’ one of them told RFE/RL. `We
Georgian Armenians can’t vote but have come to rally for him because
we think that he can help Javakheti Armenians.’

In his speech Sarkisian also pledged to ensure that the February 19
ballot is free and fair. `I will do everything to ensure that the
elections take place in accordance with democratic standards and
laws,’ said the prime minister regarded by his radical opponents as
one of the architects of Armenia’s culture of electoral fraud.

`We will not let some people discredit the elections. We will not let
the malice and ambitions of some people become decisive,’ Sarkisian
said.