AUTHORITIES BENEFIT FROM SPLIT OPPOSITION

A1+
06:21 pm | March 19, 2009

Politics

"Republican candidate Gagik Beglaryan will only benefit if "Heritage"
goes it alone and doesn’t join the ANC," told "A1+" politician
Alexander Iskandaryan. Iskandaryan is certain that "Heritage" will
gather some percentages, but wasn’t able to say how much. According
to him, the opposition is split, is not uniting the society and has
lost its image. Iskandaryan believes that the joining of "Heritage"
and the ANC will not lead to a radical change.

Is it possible for the government to counterattack the opposition’s
united candidate with a more serious figure than Gagik Beglaryan,
say, Robert Kocharyan? In response to that Iskandaryan said:

"If the authorities fear the scenario of the opposition, that is
theoretically possible, but I really don’t think that they will
nominate Robert Kocharyan."

Judging from the current situation, Iskandaryan thinks that the
authorities should stick with their current candidate.

Alexander Iskandaryan believes that the events to be held on May 31
will be a "lighter" version of the presidential elections. In other
words, they will take place like the presidential elections.

"We will witness the split in society and an opposition that will not
acknowledge the legitimacy of the elections. I think that both sides
will fight to get a hold of everything. If they don’t, then we will
possibly see a confrontation-just like the presidential elections. But
this time it will be milder because after all, people are choosing
a mayor and not a president."