The Republican Party of Armenia (RPA), the Heritage Party, the Rule of Law Party (RLP), the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) and the Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP) have applied to the Central Electoral Commission (CEC) to have the right to pin propaganda posters on the external advertisement hoardings not exceeding 5m². The mentioned right has already been distributed among the parties participating in the election for proportional representation through an electronic lot. According to that, the RPA will have 100 places, the Heritage Party 50, the RLP 64, the PAP 164, the ARF 38. Actually, only 4 political forces participating in the election – the Armenian National Congress (ANC), the Democratic Party of Armenia, the Armenian Communist Party and the United Armenians Party – have not applied for having the right to place advertisement. www.aravot.am inquired from the latter 3 parties whether there was no need for external advertisement or whether there were other problems. Ruben Tovmasyan, the Armenian Communist Party leader, said during a conversation with us, “The Armenian Communist Party has always been ready to place external advertisement, but because of the CEC and, in some cases, our mistakes, we submitted the application to Mr. Nushikyan and not to the CEC. It turns out that all of the ruling parties can have external advertisement and we can’t. It is not a secret that many people haven’t learnt how to use the internet yet; it is the reason why those mistakes take place. That issue will be clarified during the day.”
We inquired whether they didn’t have concerns that the mentioned fact would be perceived as though the Communist Party hadn’t had money for placing external advertisement. R. Tovmasyan responded, “There can be no such thing. My meetings with the representatives of the Armenian community in Moscow during my visit from February 27 through March 1 showed that they helped us and will continue helping us in terms of getting out of a difficult situation.” www.aravot.am inquired whether the Russian Communist comrades helped them. Comrade Tovmasyan responded, “They have always helped us morally.”
Aram Sargsyan, the leader of the Democratic Party of Armenia, said during a conversation with www.aravot.am, “We don’t have the need for such big posters. The expenses are too big and we don’t think that the efficiency is that big. However, generally, we will have posters.” The Democratic Party will pay visits to the regions, to all the localities during the campaign.
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Hovhannes Hovhannisyan, the deputy chairman of the United Armenians Party, communicated to www.aravot.am, “We don’t think it is meaningful to have such posters. The financial side is not essential here.” During the campaign, besides the central headquarters, the wandering headquarters of the United Armenians Party will also function. In response to a question of www.aravot.am why they didn’t make statements for press very often as other parties, Mr. Hovhannisyan said, “There is no special policy. We have our newspaper and website. Those who are interested in the phenomenon ‘third force’ can visit our website, read our newspaper that is published in 7000 copies. What other advertisement do we need?” When we inquired from where they were financed, Mr. Hovhannisyan said that by exceptionally membership fees.
Tatev HARUTYUNYAN
