Armenian bloc says running second in polls

Text of report by Armenian news agency Snark
Yerevan, 14th May: "If our bloc wins the elections, this will
mean that the Armenian people have understood that the
[current] government of `professionals' should resign," the
leader of the Law and Unity bloc, Artashes Gegamyan, told a
press conference today [14th May].
 
He said that a survey had showed that 27.6 per cent of
voters was ready to cast their votes to the Law and Unity bloc.
Moreover, the bloc is ready to support any independent
candidate and there have already been such cases.
The chairman of the Union of Constitutional Law which is a
member of the bloc, Grant Khachatryan, said that the main thing
now is to hold fair elections. Khachatryan believes that
Armenian President Robert Kocharyan is obliged to appeal to the
nation for help in holding free and fair elections. "The
president and the government should guarantee that the
parliamentary elections situation in 1995 will not reoccur in
1999. The leaders of the bloc are ready to be guarantors of the
free and fair elections," Khachatryan said.
 
Source: Snark news agency, Yerevan, in Russian 1100 gmt 14 May 99
BBC Mon TCU 190599 mm/la