“The majority of presidential candidates nominated in the 2008 election rent the Republican vaults or premises. Renting premises in real life is better, than in political life,” Aram Harutyunyan, the leader of the National Conciliation Party and a presidential candidate in the 2008 and 2013 elections, expressed this idea during a conversation with www.aravot.am. www.aravot.am inquired of Vazgen Manukyan, a candidate of the National Democratic Union nominated in the 2008 presidential election and currently the chairman of the Public Council, which of the 2008 presidential candidates rented vaults and premises from the RPA. To begin with, he didn’t think he rented premises and claimed: “I have never seen candidates like the ones you are talking about.”
In response to our question whether there were the government’s protégés among the 2008 presidential candidates, he said: “I don’t think of anyone as a protégé…. Those are journalists’ games; you decide yourselves whom you think of as a protégé and whom not.”
We also inquired of Mr. Manukyan whether he didn’t think of candidates, who cut deals and reach agreements with the government after elections, as protégés either. “What do you aim at by asking me that question? We are engaged in a presidential election. God grant, it is a free and fair election, and the elected president is acceptable for all the people…. I don’t want to comment on anything or add anything… good bye.”
Let us remind that after the 2008 election, Serzh Sargsyan, the President of the Republic of Armenia, appointed Mr. Manukyan the chairman of the Public Council.
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Arpine SIMONYAN
