Epress.am News from Armenia
Heritage Party vice chair Ruben Hakobyan, nominated in the no. 9 district for the upcoming parliamentary election, in conversation with Epress.am, said that he considers all candidates in this constituency his main competitors. The other nominees in this district are Armenian National Congress (HAK) candidate Levon Zurabyan; Republican Party of Armenia candidate, MP Ruben Sadoyan; and Prosperous Armenia Party candidate Napoleon Azizyan.
Hakobyan recalled that he was nominated as a Member of Parliament in this district once before, in 1995.
“It was a great electoral race, this district was at the center of attention, and I think we will have the same normal campaign that ensures a certain level to some extent. This is also that district where what’s believed are not beautiful words but a person’s history, his signature. Everyone in this electoral district, I believe, has a definite political history,” he said.
Asked by Epress.am whether having two opposition candidates competing in the same district doesn’t, in fact, give the advantage to a ruling party candidate, Hakobyan said:
“From the start, our position was for the opposition to back one candidate in all the single-mandate constituencies. This would be a real alternative against the ruling party candidate. We are fighting for this today too. Unfortunately, opposition parties — particularly HAK — refuse to implement this principle together with us, giving quite different explanations. We will try to implement this extremely important principle because, I think, it’s no secret to anyone, if there is 2–3 opposition candidates in the same district, this perhaps will have a direct benefit to the ruling administration to secure another term, and the slogan ‘change of government’ declared several times daily becomes irrelevant. A change of government is not an abstraction; it requires specific action. At this time it is a single act, so that the opposition, by making concessions, will be able to put aside its personal and party interests and ambitions. We are ready for this. Regretfully, we haven’t received an offer from them [HAK]. They basically reject this proposal of ours but make no other offer with respect to backing one candidate in the constituencies.”
The Heritage Party vice chair said his party is prepared to back the HAK candidate in 8 Yerevan electoral districts and in an additional 12 districts that HAK would like, but instead, the Heritage Party expects HAK to back its candidates in 5 Yerevan districts. Hakobyan said these districts are nos. 1, 4, 6, 9, and 12.
“Those who will be uncompromising and won’t make concessions for the opposition to have one candidate… in this case we’ll make some conclusions and we’ll adjust the emphasis in our upcoming campaign,” he said.