Armenian Dashnak candidate calls parliament "toy in the hands of authorities"

  Text of report by Armenian news agency Snark
Yerevan, 20th May: "Over the last 10 years, the Armenian
parliament has completely lost the people's confidence and has
become a toy in the hands of the authorities," Agvan Vardanyan,
a candidate for deputy from the Armenian Revolutionary
Federation-Dashnaktsutyun [ARFD], told today's press conference.

The main task today is to restore parliament's normal
legislative activities, Vardanyan said.
Vartanyan highlighted three stages in building a "normal
state" in Armenia. The first stage was connected with President
Levon Ter-Petrosyan's resignation in February 1998 and Robert
Kocharyan's election as the republic's president, the second
stage is the current parliamentary elections and finally, the
third stage is the forthcoming elections to self-governing
bodies in November 1999.

Talking of the level of the republic's readiness for the
30th May elections to the National Assembly, the ARFD member
said that "election committees do not know what to do because
random people, who have no idea about state management, sit on
local self-governing bodies".

Source: Snark news agency, Yerevan, in Russian 1330 gmt 20 May
99
BBC Mon TCU 200599 cal/ek