Armen Badalyan, an expert of political and electoral technologies, expressed an opinion on many occasions before the presidential election that the presidential election in Armenia was over; Serzh Sargsyan had defeated the expert in epic poems. Today the Central Election Commission published the preliminary results of the election https://www.aravot.am/2013/02/19/204588/, according to which Serzh Sargsyan had come first, Raffi Hovhannisyan second. www.aravot.am inquired of Mr. Badalyan whether he still thought that Serzh Sargsyan had defeated the expert in epic poems. He replied: “I didn’t mean the expert in epic poems specifically; I meant that all the candidates performed the function of the expert in epic poems. And he has won; certainly he has ostensibly won. He hasn’t won; he has become, since one wins in an honest and fair election.” In response to our question whether there could have been a different result, if not only the Heritage Party, but also other opposition forces had endorsed R. Hovhannisyan, Mr. Badalyan said: “It is ruled out, since there is no such thing as an opposition camp. It was predetermined who would come first and who second. In that case, the amount of money – five-ten thousand drams – handed out before the election to ensure a turnout would have increased, and the turnout would have been higher. But it is ruled out that R. Hovhannisyan would have become president.” Taking into account the fact that according to the official data, the votes won by Raffi Hovhannisyan were more than those won by the Levon Ter-Petrossian in 2008, we inquired whether a rearrangement of forces in the opposition camp was possible. A. Badalyan replied: “There is no such thing as an opposition camp; it is made up by journalists. It is a different matter whether the influential forces have a political future or not. If they undergo substantial changes, they will have a future. And this forged 36 percent will not last long. When they participate in the election after undergoing a reform, we will see that 36 percent fall to 5-6 percent.”
Tatev HARUTYUNYAN
