Today www.aravot.am inquired of Aghvan Vardanyan, the alternate representative of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation Supreme Body, where he thought the place of the PAP on today’s political stage was, whether it was an alternative force or an opposition force, he said, “It is obvious that it is not pro-government. It is also obvious that it hasn’t stated that it is an opposition, as for the rest, they should answer that question. I think that in the upcoming developments, we will have seen by November-December in what direction that political force moves.”
We inquired whether he could say what the ARF had gained from the joint staff given the fact that a few months had passed, Mr. Vardanyan said that it wasn’t right to talk about things post factum. In response to our observation that it had been established to fight against election bribes in the first place, but we had seen that one of the members of that team – the PAP – had participated in handing out election bribes, had given tractors etc., thus, what the joint staff had contributed to, in his opinion, Mr. Vardanyan said, “The National Assembly election that took place in Armenia didn’t correspond to the assessments made by the government at all. That was the worst election we have had. It is just cynical and hypocritical to assess that election as the best, close to the ideal one. Hundreds of millions of dollars and the whole administrative system were crucial in that election.”
Mr. Vardanyan said during a press conference that he didn’t think it was probable that the opposition would participate in the presidential election with a joint candidate, since it wasn’t clarified who the opposition was, who the alternative was. In response to our question whether the main reason for today’s unclear political stage was that the opposition couldn’t have a joint candidate or whether it was because the representatives of the opposition were very ambitious and thought that their candidate was the perfect one, Aghvan Vardanyan said, “You know, there are a lot of factors. If we think that it is because of one factor… what I see is in sight. It makes me think that there will be no joint candidate. God willing, I am wrong, but….”
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We also asked to clarify whether the candidate of the ARF was Vahan Hovhannisyan or they had other candidates too, Mr. Vardanyan didn’t clarify saying that the ARF hadn’t discussed that issue yet and they tried to define the problems facing our people, our country today. In response to our question who he thought would be the ARF candidate, in his opinion, he said, “We will not discuss the issue of either the party personalities or other personalities on
the political stage. Now we will discuss the problems that should be defined and put forward for solution in this country. When we define those problems, come to an agreement, we will proceed to other issues.”
Hripsime JEBEJYAN
