PRESIDENT KOCHARYAN SAYS THERE ARE FOUR WAYS OUT OF THE CURRENT SITUATION

armradio.am
29.02.2008 18:13

Armenian President Robert Kocharyan stated today at the Yerevan State
University that before the elections, the authorities had carried out a
"huge work" to have the electoral legislation meet the international
standards.

Robert Kocharyan stated that practically all the recommendations of
the international experts were taken into account, except for the
advice on using special ink for finger-marking the electors. Robert
Kocharyan believes that such innovation would lead to a considerable
decrease of voter turnout.

RA President stressed that "there cannot be perfect elections,
violations exist everywhere. However, what is important is the nature
of violations and the timely reaction of the authorities."

Robert Kocharyan noted that the official website of RA Prosecutor
General’s Office provides information on the work of law-enforcement
bodies on investigating all the facts of violations.

Robert Kocharyan declared that Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s behavior was
predictable. He noted that "the seeds of such behavior had been sown
still a fortnight before the elections. Then one of the candidates
proclaimed his victory, and from this point of view his activity
is natural."

The President suggested four scenarios of further development of
the situation.

1. Mass demonstrations continue with the attempts to involve new
people, but the public experiences great disappointment and does not
forgive those guilty of their stress.

2. The hopeless situation of the participants of the protest leads to
the reoccurrence o the situation of 1996, when the protestors attempted
to invade state structures. In this case the law-enforcement bodies
will prevent such actions.

3. The leaders of the protest thank people for support, maintaining
their influence and prepare for the next elections.

4. The leaders of the protest thank people for support, congratulate
the newly elected President, ask to show good attitude towards the
detained and go to write their recurrent scientific work."

RA President noted the authorities are ready for any of these
scenarios.

Robert Kocharyan said the authorities continue patiently waiting for
the act of protest to fade itself. Otherwise, the authorities will
have to defend the constitutional order and call the persons on the
platform to responsibility, the leader of the country stated.

At the same time, According to the President, it’s preferable for
everything to calm down itself to exclude the necessity of application
of force.