HISTORY REVISITED: SAME FORCES, DIFFERENT SIDES
- Beating, stuffing, bribing and, as the press likes to describe it, tampering with figures. These have been the methods of election for the last 13 years, when the role of the democratic principle of one person one vote is minimized and the outcome of the election is decided by the fraud made in favor of the candidate in power. What has changed through years, how does this election differ from the previous ones? While the previous elections clearly differentiated the candidates between the opposition and the pro-governmental, this time the differentiation turned to be a hard task. Opposition this time was comprised of people who had members in the government and also enjoyed the support of oligarchs.
Twelve years ago, 10 years ago and 5 years ago it was hard to imagine a party (the Armenian Revolutionary Federation Dashnaktsutyun) with three ministerial posts in the government would nominate a candidate and could become an alternative by criticizing the government. Or that another candidate Levon Ter-Petrosyan blaming the ruling parties’ candidate in deadly sins is financed by one of the most powerful tycoons Khachik Sukiasyan, who has almost always been by LTP’s side during the rallies.
Yes, Sukiasyan underwent tax pressures, but those were like a sting as compared to the threats that could be charged on an oligarch if the latter even thought of supporting financially an oppositional candidate, let alone standing by his side in 1996 or 1998. (In 1996 Ruben Hayrapetyan was on the run for supporting Vazgen Manukyan while his father was in prison.)
The monopoly of taking voters by bus to polling stations used to belong to the authorities alone, but on February 19 voters were taken by LTP’s and Artur Baghdasaryan’s teams (according to unconfirmed information also by Vahan Hovhannisyan’s), who presumably also encouraged them to vote in favor of their candidates beforehand. The four candidates showed muscle without any obstacles and competed for having large rallies and getting people from the provinces in the capital. The level of democratization has not grown, but Armenia has become more liberal, if the authorities do not revenge the oligarchs who ‘betrayed’ them.
The news on incidence of violence has become an ordinary matter from election to election. But as one sees that those who undergo violence this time are those who created the system of keeping the power in their hands by means of violence, then the ordinary matter turns into ridicule.
The plots of films and literature pieces, where the prison jailers and the prisoners or the judges and the judged come to replace each other, was almost repeated at the election with just one difference – the ‘jailers’ and the ‘judges’ became ‘prisoners’ and ‘the judged’, but the opposite has not taken place yet. The authorities of yesterday, who once tyrannized others’ will have become victims of tyranny themselves.
Shavarsh Kocharyan qualified the violence against LTP’s supporters in Artashat the following way: “One of the candidates was hit by the awl he once pointed himself.” Kocharyan meant the cases of beatings of oppositional forces in Ararat province during almost all the campaigns that began in 1995, when Ter-Petrosyan was in power and later, [during the years after his resignation]. Before 1998 the attacks were organized by Vazgen Sargsyan’s brothers Armen, who is in prison and Aram, who backs Ter-Petrosyan against the violence. They used to do that for Ter-Petrosyan and Robert Kocharyan. The pointed awl hit again on Election Day, when LTP’s numerous supporters were beaten, including former head of customs service Yerjanik Abgaryan and former deputy head of national security service Gurgen Yeghiazaryan. Those who have created the fraud and have buried democracy now protest against frauds. And the elections in 1995 and 1996 were not the only time when they did it. Chairman of the Armenian All-National Movement Ararat Zurabyan worked in Robert Kocharyan’s headquarters in 1998 and falsified the results in favor of those who now falsify theirs.
Not all the former ‘jailers’ have turned into ‘prisoners’, though. The businessmen members of the Yerkrapah Union who were dispersing demonstrators by means of shootings in 1995, distributed bribes to voters in Gyumri for a new candidate and against the former.
The exit polls that appeared to be unreliable after being done the first time ever, turned into an open campaign trick. The surveys ordered by Ter-Petrosyan and Serzh Sargsyan respectively showed their candidates in the lead. Artur Baghdasaryan’s polling results were more modest giving him second place in an expectation of a run-off.
Before even the first results appeared, the A1+ website posted a statement at about 11:00 p.m. made by the Ter-Petrosyan party announcing his victory in the first round. Unlike 1996 though, this time it was not up to him to decide the winner.
Nor was it up to the people again.
ELECTION DAY 10 A.M. VOTE, WAIT: MANY EXPECT TUESDAY TO PRODUCE LTP-SERGE RUNOFF
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After a constitutionally-imposed “day of rest” in campaigning, voting polls across Armenia opened this morning to determine who will serve as the country’s fifth president. The weekend saw both oppositionist ...ELECTION DAY 11 A.M. PRESIDENT’S PROMISE: THE VOTE WILL BE FAIR
Armenian voters went to polls in overcast but unseasonably mild weather today to select the republic’s fifth president. Outgoing president Robert Kocharyan promised equally fair conditions as a forecast ...ELECTION DAY NOON. ALREADY UGLY: VIOLENCE AND FRAUD REPORTED
Widespread incidents of fraud and violence have occurred just hours after Armenian polling stations opened today.• In the Kotayk region, according to information from Ter-Petrosyan headquarters, tycoon ...ELECTION DAY, 1 P.M. MID-DAY REPORTS CHALLENGE “FREE AND FAIR”: ILLEGALITIES CLAIMED REPUBLIC-WIDE
ArmeniaNow staff
Newsrooms across Armenia continue to receive reports of a tense Election Day... • Reporting from the town of Abovian, Social-Democratic Hunchakian Party chairwoman Lyudmila Sargsyan told ArmeniaNow that ...ELECTION DAY, 2 P.M. THE 911 VOTE: SARGSYAN, TER-PETROSYAN IN DIFFERENT MOODS AT SAME STATION
ArmeniaNow staff
Both Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan and his main opponent former president Levon Ter-Petrosyan voted today in Precinct 9/11.
As he voted, the PM joked with reporters who asked who would win today: “The ...ELECTION DAY, 3 P.M. DEMOCRATIC FRAUD?: BOTH SIDES ACCUSED OF VOTING VIOLATIONS
ArmeniaNow staff
The central headquarters of Serzh Sargsyan released a statement denying reports that its members were involved in violence against supporters of Levon Ter-Petrosyan. Accusing the Ter-Petrosyan camp of ...ELECTION DAY, 4 P.M. CLAIMS AND COUNTER CLAIMS: OPEN VOTING IN VANADZOR, REPORTER ACCOSTED IN YEREVAN
ArmeniaNow staff
Open voting continues in Vanadzor, where Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan is expected to win in the 100,000 resident-city where his Republican Party of Armenia is a stronghold. (“Open” voting allows ballots ...ELECTION DAY, 5 P.M. PROBLEMS NORTH TO SOUTH: IRREGULARITIES CITED FROM DEBED TO KAPAN
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Central Election Commission officials are expected to announce the latest voter turnout information at 6 p.m. Meanwhile, news from Election Day continues to be filled with allegations of irregularities ...ELECTION DAY, 6 P.M. TWO HOURS REMAIN, ALLEGATIONS CONTINUE: DECISION 2008 WINDS TOWARD CRITICAL RESOLUTION
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As of 5 p.m. Central Election Commission reports that 57.14 percent of Armenia’s 2.3 million voters have cast ballots.
Meanwhile, the latest round of allegations . . .
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ArmeniaNow staff
Supporters of former president Levon Ter-Petrosyan claim imminent victory as polling stations are due to close about an hour from now. Campaign spokesman Arman Musinyan bases his and his team’s optimism ...ELECTION DAY, 8 P.M. POLLS CLOSE, SPECULATION BEGINS: WILL ALLEGED VIOLATIONS PLAY ROLE IN OUTCOME OF DECISION 2008?
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As Armenia’s 1,923 polling stations close on another stormy Election Day it appears that voting turnout will be at least more than 60 percent and perhaps an increase from the 61.2 percent of the last ...ELECTION DAY, 9 P.M. NOT GUILTY/GUILTY: POLICE SAY ALLEGATIONS AGAINST RPA ARE INVALID, BUT LTP PEOPLE AT FAULT
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Thousands of presidential candidate Levon Ter-Petrosyan supporters have gathered near Matenadaran today demanding that the February 19 presidential election be recognized null and void.
Scanning “Serzh, ...SARGSYAN WINS, DEMOCRACY CHALLENGED: PRIME MINISTER SET TO TAKE PRESIDENCY FOLLOWING FLAWED ELECTION
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The possibility of the return to public politics was first considered by Levon Ter-Petrosyan on the threshold of the 2003 presidential election when the head of his office Levon Zurabyan hinted at the ...HISTORY REVISITED: SAME FORCES, DIFFERENT SIDES
Beating, stuffing, bribing and, as the press likes to describe it, tampering with figures. These have been the methods of election for the last 13 years, when the role of the democratic principle of one ...WHAT DO I PAY THEM FOR?: I WANT MY PROTEST TV!
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SAFE AMID DANGER: ARMENIANS UNSCATHED IN LATEST ESCALATION OF VIOLENCE IN LEBANON
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ELECTION DAY 11 A.M. PRESIDENT’S PROMISE: THE VOTE WILL BE FAIR
- 1837 Creation of the Armenian Supreme Ecclesiastic Council in Echmiadsin - the Synod attached to the Catholicos of All-Armenians.
- 1909 Birth of Taras Toosoozyan in Yekaterinodar (now Krasnodar). He was a Major-General of the Soviet Army. He was the Military Commissar of the Armenian SSR from 1950 to 1969.
- 1931 The Central Affairs Committee decides to establish a Radio-Broadcasting Committee.
- 1932 Birth of architect Arthur Tarkhanyan in Leninakan (Gyoomree). He designed and implemented the "Tsitsernakabert" Genocide Memorial Complex, the "Airarat" (formerly "Rossiya") movie theater, the Palace of Youth, "Zvartnotss" Airport, and many other buildings.
- 1938 Birth of Artavazd Peleshyan in Leninakan (Gyoomree). He became a famous artist, State Prize Laureate, and a master of the documentary film genre .
- 1939 The Armenian Supreme Soviet awards the right to the Opera and Ballet Theater of Yerevan, to be called the Alexander Spendarian Opera and Ballet Theatre.
- 1960 The Armenian Theater Association in Beirut decides to be known as the Vahram Papazyan Association.
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