HAMAYAK HOVHANNISYAN: AUTHORITIES NOMINATED "A MERE NOTHING" FOR PARLIAMENT
news.am
Dec 18 2009
Armenia
The parliamentary elections in Election District #10 will be of crucial
importance for the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process and Armenia-Turkey
reconciliation. These are the first elections of republican scale,
and the international community is looking forward to them exert
pressure on Armenia in case of any violations, Hamayak Hovhannisyan,
the Head of the Armenian Association of Political Scientists and
parliamentary candidate, told NEWS.am.
According to him, it is for the first time that in Election District
#10, the central election district of Yerevan with most of the
Armenian intellectuals residing there, "a mere political nobody"
and "blockhead" Ara Simonyan, who is relative of Yerevan Mayor
Gagik Beglaryan, is being pushed forward to Parliament. "Remember
the persons elected to Parliament from this election district – only
intellectuals. Now, however, black forces are trying to disgrace the
district by having their candidate elected to Parliament. Yerevan
Mayor Gagik Beglaryan has mobilized all the drug addicts and idlers to
fight against the candidate from the intelligentsia, Editor-in-Chief
of the Haykakan Zhamanak newspaper Nikol Pashinyan, who is a political
prisoner," Hovhannisyan said. He stated his intention to withdraw his
candidacy in Pashinyan’s favor and conduct monitoring on the election
day. Hovhannisyan also intends to take part in the Opposition’s rally
on January 8.
According to him, Pashinyan stands a high chance of winning the
elections. However, Hovhannisyan does rule out the possibility of
a clash with the "black forces." "If the Armenian authorities are
doing their best to have this political nobody elected, nothing
can be ruled out. We have two options: either Pashinyan wins the
elections or the authorities rig the elections and have their
candidate elected. In the second case a clash is inevitable until
the next parliamentary elections in 2012," he said. Obstacles are
being put to the opposition candidates, Hovhannisyan said. "I can say
that none of the TV companies, except for ALM, agrees to provide paid
airtime to opposition candidates," Hovhannisyan said.
The parliamentary elections in Election Districts are scheduled for
January 10.