For Andrias Ghukasyan, a candidate for president, the launch of the election campaign was marked with a hunger strike outside the National Academy of Sciences today.
“I demand from the government to ensure the citizens’ right to vote. I call on the state to perform its duties to citizens. I am sure that rights are a higher category than the law,” Mr. Ghukasyan told www.aravot.am. He repeated that he was not satisfied with the decision made by the Central Election Commission on his request.
Let us remind that Mr. Ghukasyan had demanded from the commission to void the registration of Serzh Sargsyan, the incumbent president and the candidate of the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA), as a candidate for president. “The commission is a state body that is supposed to maintain the people’s power, if it doesn’t perform that function, what is it for?”
In response to our question what response he had expected from the government, he said: “I begin a hunger strike, demanding from the state to revise its position on conducting elections. They should ensure the right to vote. The ruling regimes, which cannot be elected through free elections, are compelled to force the public to vote for them and are guided by the principle that right stems from force. They may change their position only under the influence of another force. The hunger strike is the means that will make them change their position.”
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The candidate for president didn’t rule out that the hunger strike will continue through the whole election campaign. “It is indefinite,” the candidate for president said.
Arpine SIMONYAN
