Party Leaders Meet with Journalists
Worthy Future Party
Aravot, Hayastani Hanrapetutiun, Hayots Ashkhar, Zhamanak and Oragir reported that Liudmila Harutiunyan, leader of the new Worthy Future Party and a sociologist at Yerevan State University, met with journalists on May 13. Harutiunyan shared with journalists her impressions and thoughts about the current social situation and said she believes that transformations took place at high speed and that the population failed to cope with them; the majority in society still are not adjusted to the new realities created after independence. Harutiunyan said that individuals with huge amounts of money have entered the campaign and that they can easily break provisions of the Electoral Code and that because the country is poor it is easy to influence voters via money. As a result, rule of law and the very foundations of society have come under question. Harutiunyan told journalists that her first objectives in the new parliament will be to develop and adopt a law that provides mechanisms for re-calling deputies and the elimination of deputy immunity.
Ramkavar Azatakan Party
As Azg and Hayastani Hanrapetutiun reported, leading members of Ramkavar Azatakan Party of Armenia, Robert Mirzakhanyan, Harutiun Karapetyan and Shamiram Aghabekyan, met with journalists on May 13. Shamiram Aghabekyan stated that the liberal democratic ideals of the party are not in conflict with programs intended to improve the social situation of the population. The party leaders did not want to make any prediction related to the number of seats they will win, but they are sure that they will be represented in new National Assembly. As Hayastani Hanrapetutuin reported, the Party has spent about 4 million drams (7,500 USD) during past three weeks of the campaign.
Law and Unity Bloc
Hayastani Hanrapetutiun, Hayots Ashkhar, Oragir and Yerkir reported that a press conference was held by the leaders of the Law and Unity Bloc on May 14. Artashes Geghamyan , one of the leaders of the Bloc who heads the National Unity Party, said that voters have already realized who supports whom and that his Bloc is becoming stronger. He claimed that if at the beginning of the campaign their Bloc's rating was 17%, it is now 27.6%. This increase, according to Geghamyan, is the main explanation for why state authorities have started to create barriers to the Bloc's campaign. He mentioned several incidents, among them one in the town of Martouni where the mayor tried to ban a meeting organized by the Bloc. Bloc leaders urged President Kocharyan to make an official statement calling on people to participate in the election and at the same time warning state authorities not to abuse their powers. Hrant Khachatryan, another Bloc leader who heads the Union for Constitutional Rights Party, claimed that their Bloc has support from the people because it promises to be bold and radical in eliminating criminal elements from governmental structures. He said that the Republican Party has the most such elements and he promised to publish Constitutional Court materials on the 1996 Presidential Elections falsifications. So far the Law and Unity Bloc has spent 6 million, 700 thousand Drams (about 13,000 USD) on the campaign -- although Bloc leaders refused to answer questions about how much money they have received from Samvel Babayan, Defense Minister of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic.
Khosrov Harutiunyan on Parties
The dailies reported on the May 14 press conference of Khosrov Harutiunyan, Chairman of the Armenian National Assembly and an independent candidate for a seat in Yerevan’s Electoral District 11. Harutiunyan talked about the present campaign and his vision of the future National Assembly. He said that the most surprising feature of this campaign is the large number of candidates who have no relations with politics either in the past or in the present and who are sure that they can use politics for protection and stability in their business activities. He advised such candidates to run for community councils in the upcoming elections of the local self-administration bodies on November, 1999, because their skills can be best applied on that level rather than in the drafting of laws. Answering a question about whom he would suggest people vote for, Harutiunyan said to trust those parties and leaders who have long-standing political records in the past, mentioning Karen Demirchyan and Paruyr Hayrikyan. He said that he personally sympathizes with the ideologies of the Christian-Democratic Union and the Ramkavar-Azatakan Party. However, he would like to see the Unity Bloc in the majority because it will choose both the National Assembly Chairman and Prime-Minister.
Constitutional Court Member on the Legitimacy of the Elections
Feliks Tokhyan, member of the ROA Constitutional Court and head of a task force established by the ROA Presidential Commission on Constitutional Reform, discussed the legal guarantees for the legitimacy of the coming parliamentary elections in a May 14 lecture. Tokhyan said that the current situation is sad because knowledge of the Electoral Code alone is not sufficient to conduct free, fair and transparent elections. He believes that the main problem is that a number of codes, laws (for example, Civil Procedural Code, Press Law, Law on Political Parties and others), as well as Presidential and Governmental decrees are related to the electoral process and that both members of all Electoral Commissions and judges should know them at least at a minimal level. In addition, the Electoral Code itself is complicated and difficult to understand, the legal culture is underdeveloped, and human rights are not sufficiently protected. These factors will create serious problems for the judicial system, including the Constitutional Court, and the judicial system might become the scapegoat if the elections fail. Tokhyan thinks that disputes on electoral issues have a political character and it is not the court's function to engage in political disputes because it can become discredited. He said that it is too late to change anything now and that the judicial system should try for minimal losses. As for measures aimed at improving the situation in the future, Tokhyan suggested changing how election commissions are formed – away from political party representation toward a membership consisting of persons representing legal institutions.