The parliamentary elections in Election District #10 will be of crucial importance for the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process and Armenia-Turkey reconciliation. These are the first elections of republican scale, and the international community is looking forward to them exert pressure on Armenia in case of any violations, Hamayak Hovhannisyan, the Head of the Armenian Association of Political Scientists and parliamentary candidate, told NEWS.am.

According to him, it is for the first time that in Election District #10, the central election district of Yerevan with most of the Armenian intellectuals residing there, “a mere political nobody” and “blockhead” Ara Simonyan, who is relative of Yerevan Mayor Gagik Beglaryan, is being pushed forward to Parliament. “Remember the persons elected to Parliament from this election district – only intellectuals. Now, however, black forces are trying to disgrace the district by having their candidate elected to Parliament. Yerevan Mayor Gagik Beglaryan has mobilized all the drug addicts and idlers to fight against the candidate from the intelligentsia, Editor-in-Chief of the Haykakan Zhamanak newspaper Nikol Pashinyan, who is a political prisoner,” Hovhannisyan said. He stated his intention to withdraw his candidacy in Pashinyan’s favor and conduct monitoring on the election day. Hovhannisyan also intends to take part in the Opposition’s rally on January 8.

According to him, Pashinyan stands a high chance of winning the elections. However, Hovhannisyan does rule out the possibility of a clash with the “black forces.” “If the Armenian authorities are doing their best to have this political nobody elected, nothing can be ruled out. We have two options: either Pashinyan wins the elections or the authorities rig the elections and have their candidate elected. In the second case a clash is inevitable until the next parliamentary elections in 2012,” he said. Obstacles are being put to the opposition candidates, Hovhannisyan said. “I can say that none of the TV companies, except for ALM, agrees to provide paid airtime to opposition candidates,” Hovhannisyan said.

The parliamentary elections in Election Districts are scheduled for January 10.

T.P.