ARMENIAN PARTY LEADER DENIES ALLEGED MAYORAL ELECTION PLANS

Aravot
March 20 2009
Armenia

The leader the opposition People’s Party of Armenia, Stepan Demirchyan,
has denied reports that he is going to become Yerevan mayor if former
President Levon Ter-Petrosyan cedes the mayor’s office to him after the
forthcoming election, Aravot pro-opposition daily reported on 20 March.

The former Armenian president and currently opposition leader, Levon
Ter-Petrosyan, is reportedly planning to cede the mayor’s office
to Demirchyan if Ter-Petrosyan is elected mayor in the forthcoming
31 May election. Ter-Petrosyan is the top candidate on the list of
the opposition Armenian National Congress (ANC), and Demirchyan is
the second.

In an interview with Aravot daily, Demirchyan said that having
Ter-Petrosyan on the top of the ANC’s list of candidates will
"mobilize the electorate" to the best extent. Demirchyan disapproved
of President Serzh Sargsyan appointment of Gagik Beglaryan, former
head of Yerevan’s Kentron district, to the post of Yerevan mayor
ahead of the 31 May mayoral election. He said that the opposition
and the ruling Republican Party of Armenia, which has Beglaryan on
top of its list of candidates, have "unequal" conditions of struggle,
Aravot said. The ANC has all possibilities to win the mayoral election
if a "normal" electoral process is ensured, adding that there was "no
ground to predict that the authorities will ensure a normal process",
Demirchyan said.