YEREVAN. – Armenia’s presidential candidate, “Radio Hay” Company Manager, and political scientist Andreas Ghukasyan—who is on a hunger strike ever since January 21 and under the slogan “Stop Fake Elections”—will end his hunger strike on Tuesday, once the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (OSCE/ODIHR) issues its report on Monday’s presidential vote, and he will go home, Ghukasyan himself told Armenian News-NEWS.am.  

He said he had no expectations from the election.

“The results of this voting do not express the will of the people. I find that the forces should unite so we may be able to fight against this situation,” he noted.   

Ghukasyan argued that it would have been a progress if Armenia had conducted a free election, and the person who acquired public confidence had won this vote. 

“Representative of the [ruling] Republican Party [that is, incumbent President Serzh Sargsyan] received more [votes] than the others, and this does not correspond to the manifestation of the people’s will. I do not recognize the results of this election,” he said.  

The presidential contender further informed that he did check the number of votes he himself had received. 

“I did not seek to get votes, since I believe this is meaningless in the case of fake elections,” he added.

Ghukasyan also stressed that he does not regret having declared a hunger strike.

“What’s important for me are the [political] positions, not the expectation,” he noted, and added that he knows his next course of action, irrespective of the OSCE/ODIHR report. 

He said this was the first phase of the battle, and noted that the second phase will be a collective action and it will depend on the civil and political groups that will join this battle.     

“If the [election] observers stand alongside [Armenia’s] criminal-oligarchic system and attempt to legitimize this election, this will create a new situation for the opposition activists to fight not solely within the country, but also against those international forces that support this regime,” Andreas Ghukasyan maintained.

Photo by Arsen Sargsyan/NEWS.am