Yesterday the Central Electoral Commission has confirmed the right of parties participating in the election through the proportional representation to place external advertisement hoardings not exceeding 5m² and propaganda posters. According to that, the Republican Party will have 100 places for posters, the Heritage Party will have 50 places, the Rule of Law Party (RLP) will have 64 places, the Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP) will have 164 places and the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) will have 38 places.
MP Anahit Bahshyan, a representative of the Heritage Party doubted the correspondence of the PAP expenses to the stipulated limits during a conversation with www.aravot.am yesterday. In that regard, Khachik Galstyan, the press secretary of the PAP, said during a conversation with www.aravot.am that the PAP would spend on the propaganda elements and posters as much as the law provides for, “And not a penny more.”
In response to Anahit Bakhshyan’s concerns that they had created unequal conditions of election struggle for other parties, the PAP press secretary said, “They shouldn’t be concerned too much and should put forward facts.” In response to an observation of www.aravot.am how come that the ruling parties advertise more within the limits of allowed currency circulation, the PAP press secretary said, “We treat propaganda very seriously. And the fact that there is much propaganda is also a result of the interest of mass media in our political force.”
By the way, the experience of the past election showed that the RPA and the PAP crossed the 60-million-AMD margin provided for by the Armenian legislation. Center for Regional Development/Transparency International Armenia NGO had conducted a monitoring of the parties’ abuses of pre-election propaganda and administrative resources before the 2007 parliamentary election. According to those examinations, the RPA had spent on the propaganda only in Yerevan, Gyumri and Vanadzor 79.1 million AMD, the PAP 129.6 million, the ARF 50.7 million, the RLP 33.1 million and the Heritage Party 24 million AMD.
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Nelly GRIGORYAN
