He suspects that the opposition forces are afraid to lose an opportunity to negotiate with the government.
Today Vahan Hovhannisyan, a member of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) Bureau, stated during a meeting with residents of Davitashen that because of some people’s ambitions the opposition hadn’t united in this election. www.aravot.am inquired of Mr. Hovhannisyan whether only ambitions had been the reason for the opposition’s failure to unite. He replied: “No. Surely, there were other reasons too. As far as 4 opposition or alternative forces are concerned, there were different reasons. The political intrigue here is a bit richer. However, in some cases, they were really very close, and the possibility was really visible; unfortunately, ambitions played a role here.” In response to our question whether there was a possibility of a post-election coalition, as the Armenian Revolutionary Federation suggested, given the fact that the opposition hadn’t consolidated before the election, Vahan Hovhannisyan said: “Our proposal is the following; let those forces gather, for example, tomorrow or in the next few days and promise the people now that if they win seats, they will surely unite. And let us see who says no.” In response to our question whether it didn’t matter whether it was oral or in writing, he said: “If such a statement is made, I think it will suffice from moral perspective. Let them state and say yes. We say that in all speeches, but I haven’t heard any other force convincingly say that, which means that they will probably lose an opportunity to negotiate with the government. We don’t participate in such intrigues. That is why we openly say who should carry out a change of power at the level of Yerevan; they can state now that they are ready to unite this way.” We inquired whether the ARF made such proposals to oppositionists only during campaign meetings or they had made a proposal at the highest level and they hadn’t received an answer yet, he replied: “I am sure that a proposal has been made. I haven’t participated in those negotiations personally; that is why I don’t know whether our members have done what they state about. It is no accident.” Vladimir Karapetyan, a member of the Armenian National Congress (ANC) stated yesterday that the ANC, the ARF, the Heritage Party, and the Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP) were engaged in consultations on struggle against electoral fraud, which was later denied by the Heritage Party on its behalf. We asked Vahan Hovhannisyan to clarify whether the ARF was engaged in those consultations or not. He had difficulty answering and advised us to ask the campaign headquarters. “It is quite possible that there is such a thing, but you can get more detailed information from the campaign headquarters or the Supreme Body.”
Hripsime JEBEJYAN
