As we have already informed, Paruyr Hayrikyan, a candidate for president and the leader of the Union for National Self-Determination (UNSD), filed a petition in the Constitutional Court yesterday to postpone the election. However, the candidate laid down one condition that if the opposition candidates united, he would take his petition back. The candidates hadn’t united, but today he took back his petition anyway.
P. Hayrikyan’s policy is construed by some circles as a policy of “grabbing an office.” What does P. Hayrikyan want after all and what new developments can be expected in the short-run? The conversation of www.aravot.am with different political forces was on this subject. When asked the question Artak Zakaryan, the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) head of the National Assembly external affairs commission, said: “The process is merely a legal one, and it is under the Constitutional Court’s consideration. There will be respective decisions, then there will be comments.”
Talking about the news about “grabbing an office,” Mr. Zakaryan said: “I don’t wish to comment on rumors and gossip. Basically the candidate for president had the right to do that. The important thing is that the electoral process in our country progresses in full accordance with the Election Code and international standards, and I am sure that in the future, we will do all that is necessary to conduct the best election in our country’s history.” Mr. Zakaryan didn’t wish to respond to our observation whether what had happened to Hayrikyan hadn’t cast a shadow on the electoral process.
Armen Martirosyan, the deputy leader of the Heritage party, said with regard to the question: “We are busy with Raffi Hovhannisyan’s election campaign, not with other candidates’ election campaigns. Moreover, there is no time to make analyses now; we solve important organizational problems, problems regarding the management of the campaign.”
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Lyudmila Sargsyan, a member of the Armenian National Congress (ANC) parliamentary group, thinks that it is not even possible to predict what decision Hayrikyan will make in an hour. Then she went into detail: “Hayrikyan is such an unpredictable man that I cannot express any opinion today. In my opinion, it is just impossible to make any assessment here. I share all the opinions that have been expressed, but I cannot decide on one particular opinion; I don’t rule out anything.”
Let us mention that all these comments had been made before Hayrikyan took back his petition.
Tatev HARUTYUNYAN
