Aravot inquired from Eduard Sharmazanov, the deputy speaker of the National Assembly, “You aspire after 37%-40% through proportional representation, however you admitted that the Prosperous Armenia Party had more votes, according to public opinion polls. Don’t you see contradiction? What reasons do you have to expect so many votes?” Mr. Sharmazanov responded, “I don’t see any contradiction, the RPA has higher percentage now as compared with year 2007 and comparing with public opinion polls of that time, our starting condition is better today. In March 2007, we were losing to your mentioned party by 11%, but in May we won by 18% and now that dynamics will be maintained, because the RPA electorate is the most stable. Public opinion polls show that on the election day, the people attach importance mainly to solving national problems and 54%-55% of respondents prefer the Republican Party in terms of solving national problems. National problems – the Turkish-Armenian relations, the Genocide and the Karabakh issues – are the issue of improving the international reputation of the state… Going to vote, voter attaches more importance to those problems, rather than charity. Given all this, also the fact that the campaign hasn’t commenced yet and we have many things to say and represent to our society, it is very realistic if we win 37%-40% now, whereas five years ago we won 33.8%.”
In response to another question what would have Ashot Navasardyan, the founder of the Republican Party, who had always been polite in his public speeches, said, if he had seen how both the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) and the Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP) sometimes crossed the limits of politeness with their biting remarks, Eduard Sharmazanov said, “I don’t want to answer questions with ifs, but I know one thing that if the party established by Mr. Navasardyan has taken the right path and if, God grant, he saw us from above, he would surely be happy that the party he established acts for the glory of Armenia and the Armenian people.”
