BEIRUT: Tashnaq Party announces candidates for 2009 elections

NowLebanon, Lebanon
March 29 2009

Tashnaq Party announces candidates for 2009 elections
March 29, 2009

Secretary General of the Tashnaq party Hovig Mekhtarian said `Lebanese
citizens are waiting for June 7 to cast their votes, make a change and
pull Lebanon out of the biggest crisis it has faced in the recent
period.’

Mekhtarian addressed a Tashnaq party gathering on Sunday, in which the
party announced its candidates for the upcoming parliamentary
elections.

Mekhtarian announced the Tashnaq party had chosen George Qassargi to
run for the Armenian seat in Zahle, Agop Bakradonian to run in the
Northern Metn, Artur Nazarian for the Armenian Orthodox seat in
Beirut’s second district, and Gregore Kalost for the Catholic Armenian
and Freij Sabonjain for the Orthodox Armenian seats in Beirut’s first
electoral district.

He said that the party `had decided to choose non-partisan figures for
the first and second electoral districts in Beirut and in Zahle in the
Bekaa, while a partisan in the Metn.’ Agop Bakradonian is the only
formal member of the Tashnaq party.

`Democratic elections portray a face of democracy and it should be
carried out without violence and pressure,’ Mekhtarian said.

He stressed MPs should support legal institutions, especially that of
the president who was elected by a consensus.

`Reviving the Armenian bloc and its role in the parliament is to
support moderation and open dialogue among the different components of
the Lebanese people,’ he said, expressing confidence that the
candidates on the list would win.

-NOW Staff