May 4 newspapers reported the arrest of Vano Siradeghyan. Siradeghyan is the controversial former Interior Minister and former Mayor of Yerevan and is currently the Chairman of the Armenian National Movement Party (HHSh). He is a candidate in the upcoming National Assembly elections for both a proportional seat and in Electoral District 75 in the Tavoush Marz.

Siradeghyan left Armenia at the end of January, 1999, a few days after the National Assembly denied consent for his arrest. The NA withdrew Siradeghyan’s immunity from prosecution in February. The Prosecutor General is investigating Siradeghyan for a number of murders.

On May 3, at 3:30 p.m. Vano Siradeghyan arrived in Yerevan by plane from Sofia, Bulgaria, with his wife and son. However, fellow party members of Siradeghyan who came to meet him in the airport had no a chance to see him as he was arrested just as he was stepping out of the plane and was escorted to the Office of the Prosecutor General.

On April 4, as Hayots Ashkhar, Aravot, Oragir and Azg reported, the leading members of the Armenian National Movement Party (HHSh) held a press conference related to the arrest of Vano Siradeghyan. Hovhannes Igityan, National Assembly Deputy and board member of the Party stated that the arrest of Vano Siradeghyan is "hindering the normal process of the pre-election campaign" as provided by Article 133 of the Electoral Code. According to leading members of HHSh, their right to have equal conditions during the campaign has been violated by the authorities. Ararat Zourabyan, Deputy Chairman of the Party’s board stated that "all this is an attempt to make HHSh leave the elections and that the party is considering a boycott."

The HHSh appealed to the Central Election Commission but, as reported in Hayots Ashkhar, the CEC Chairman stated that it can not now get involved because according to the Criminal Procedural Code, citizens including candidates, legally can be placed under arrest for 96 hours. The CEC or the relevant Regional Electoral Commission must give its permission only for the detention of registered candidates and when the courts decide on administrative or criminal liability.

Article 18 ensures that the election campaign of arrested candidates can be carried out though their proxies and to do so they have the right to daily meetings. Aravot had the announcement of the Prosecutor’s Office stating that Article 18 had not been violated because Siradeghyan was allowed to meet with his proxies.

As all dailies reported, Knut Volebek, OSCE Acting Chairman and Foreign Affairs Minister of Norway, appointed Tone Tingsgaard as special representative to head the OSCE’s short term monitoring mission for the upcoming parliamentary elections. Ms. Tingsgaard is the Head of the Swedish Mission at the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly. She will cooperate with the OSCE/ODIHR office, which launched its monitoring mission on April 19.

The dailies reported that on May 1 Artur Haroutiunyan, an independent candidate in Electoral District 68 in Syunik Marz, was taken to the hospital in Kapan (center of Syunik Marz) with serious knife wounds. He was operated on and his condition remains serious. According to the Office of the Syunik Governor, the incident had no political reasons.

President Kocharyan on Political Parties and the Campaign

The central topic of the press on May 6 was a press conference held by the President Robert Kocharyan the day before. Kocharyan said that he will rely on those political forces with whom he has been cooperating during the past couple years and added that he is not ruling out the possibility that other political forces also will be represented in the Parliament. Kocharyan explained that in the new Assembly he plans to rely on the ARF Dashnaktsutiun and the Unity Bloc. Kocharyan refused to predict the outcome of the elections, worrying that if he is correct he will be suspected of having tampered with the results. Kocharyan said he does not view negatively the active involvement of law-enforcement ministers in the formation of the new Parliament.

All dailies reported on the May 5 press conference held by Vahan Hovhannissyan. Hovhannissyan is an Advisor to President Kocharyan and a member of the ARF Dashnaktsutiun Supreme Body who is running on both National Assembly ballots; he was jailed for three years by the Ter-Petrossyan regime and was released when Kocharyan became President. Hovhannissyan said that the pre-election period could be divided into three stages (Electoral Code adoption process, creation of electoral districts, and the campaign) and that there have been irregularities at every stage so far. However, he claims that the ARF is still optimistic that the election will be free and fair and that the new Parliament will be an improvement over the current one.

Hovhannissyan explained that his party’s strong national ideology is the reason for why it did not form a bloc or any alliances in the this election. He called on voters not to take election bribes and to not vote for those who offer bribes, even if they are taken. One of the ARF's advantages in the upcoming elections, according to Hovhannissyan, is the fact that this is the first time it has been allowed to run for Parliament.

Shavarsh Kocharyan, one of the leaders of the National Democratic Union (NDU) and its candidate for both district-wide and party list seats, asserted that free and fair elections cannot be conducted without the active involvement of the government. He explained that it was the government that was mainly responsible for violations and falsifications during previous elections. According to Kocharyan, Vano Siradeghyan's arrest was an effort to distract the attention of voters away from the elections. He also explained that the NDU remains in opposition to the government and to the system of existing governance but not to personalities. The resignation of President Levon Ter-Petrossyan did not change the regime, according to Kocharyan.

Communist Party Leaders' Press Conference

The Armenian dailies filed reports on a press conference held by the leaders of the Communist Party of Armenia on May 5. Sergey Badalyan, First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Party and a candidate on its proportional list, summarized the results of recent

meetings with the population of Vayots Dzor and Syunik Marzes. His impression was that the party has strong support, even though the campaign in the those regions had experienced various violations of the law, such as the collection of a large number of old Soviet passports that are taken under the pretext of updating them, the absence of military registered voter lists, threats and pressure on candidates, and the mass bribing of voters. Badalyan advised voters to accept election bribes and then to vote against the bribers, who are using stolen monies to run their campaigns. He claims that so far the Party has spent only a little more than 1000 USD on its campaign. Badalyan explained that the Vano Siradeghyan arrest is aimed at destabilizing the situation before the elections.

Hayastani Hanrapetutyun, Aravot, Zhamanak and Azg reported on a meeting held by the Ramkavar-Azatakan Party of Armenia on May 5 where its platform was presented. Rouben Mirzakhanyan, Chairman of the Party and a candidate on its proportional list, discussed the main points of the platform, including the removal of the immunity status now provided to all National Assembly members, creation of beneficiary economic and legal conditions for small and medium businesses, promotion of foreign investments from Diaspora Armenians, and removal of the constitutional prohibition on dual citizenship.

The dailies reported that on the evening of May 5 one of the electoral campaign offices of Kim Balayan, ARF Dashnaktsutiun candidate running in Electoral District 5 in Yerevan, was set on fire. The fire did not cause serious damage, and only the entrance door was destroyed. Balayan claims that this was arson, but he does know of any suspects.

Hayastani Hanrapetutiun, Aravot, Zhamanak and Azg reported that the Unity Bloc’s leaders, Karen Demirchyan and Vazgen Sargissyan visited Ararat Marz as the kickoff of their regional campaign. During their campaign rallies, the Unity Bloc leaders said that the time of cleavages is over and the time to join together and move forward had come. Their main concern is improvement in economic and social spheres.