AUTHORITIES SIGNAL BAN ON PRE-ELECTION STREET MARCHES
By Ruzanna Stepanian
Radio Liberty, Czech Republic
Jan 17 2008
Citing the need to prevent traffic jams, the Yerevan municipality
has indicated that it will ban presidential candidates from having
their supporters march through the city center in the run-up to and
in the aftermath of next month’s election.
The move was defended on Thursday by Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian’s
campaign team but denounced by representatives of his main challengers
as an illegal restriction of freedom of assembly.
In a statement late on Wednesday, the Yerevan mayor’s office said it
considers street marches "inexpedient" because they would disrupt the
already congested traffic in the city center and restrict "citizens’
freedom of the movement." Political organizations and individual
citizens should therefore refrain from organizing such actions,
the statement said.
"This is a technical issue," said Eduard Sharmazanov, a spokesman for
the Sarkisian campaign and the governing Republican Party of Armenia.
"There are no political motives involved."
However, the campaign headquarters of one of the opposition candidates,
Levon Ter-Petrosian, claimed the opposite, saying that the move came
just days after the former Armenian president made clear that he
will urge supporters to take to the streets of Yerevan if the vote
is falsified by the authorities. "This is yet another obstacle to the
political movement led by Levon Ter-Petrosian," said Nikol Pashinian,
a Ter-Petrosian campaign coordinator.
Pashinian told RFE/RL that the Ter-Petrosian campaign will file a
complaint to the election observation mission already deployed in
Armenia by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
"Since observers and the public are not necessarily familiar with
Armenian legislation, we will do our best to inform them that the
decision of the mayor’s office is illegal," he said. "Under Armenian
law, the mayor of Yerevan has no authority to find demonstrations
expedient or inexpedient."
Under Armenia’s law on rallies and demonstration, the mayor’s office
can ban street protests only on a case-by-case basis and only after
receiving a written notification from their organizers.
Also slamming the de facto ban was the campaign manager of Vahan
Hovannisian, the presidential candidate of the Armenian Revolutionary
Federation (Dashnaktsutyun), the HHK’s junior coalition partner.
"Maybe we should also avoid campaigning," Armen Rustamian suggested
tartly.
"I don’t think this statement is right now that Armenia is entering a
pre-election period," said Rustamian. "All officials must understand
that political forces must be able to fully exercise their rights
defined by the constitution and laws. The opposition already doesn’t
have that many freedoms."
Heghine Bisharian, the campaign chief of another opposition candidate,
Artur Baghdasarian, agreed. "We believe that presidential candidates
must face no obstacles in staging marches and rallies," she told
RFE/RL.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
