By Ruzanna Stepanian
Stepan Demirchian’s opposition People’s Party of Armenia (HZhK) does not exclude that it may support the election bid of ex-president Levon Ter-Petrosian if the latter decides to run for president and manages to build broad-based political support for his campaign. The party’s secretary Grigor Harutiunian said on Wednesday that while the HZhK can participate in the elections with its own candidate, they would still prefer rallying around a single opposition candidate.
“Consolidation is the only way to wage a successful struggle against this regime. Participating separately opposition candidates are doomed to failure,” he added.
The HZhK representative described Ter-Petrosian as a politician with a proven track record who can become a presidential candidate enjoying broad-based opposition support. He hinted at the presence of Ter-Petrosian’s former allies in the current leadership who, he said, “all know his possibilities.”
While admitting many negative phenomena that dogged Armenia’s first post-communist administration led by Ter-Petrosian, Harutiunian said that “all the negative things that began under the previous leadership have reached an unprecedented scale today, increasing a thousand times.”
“A person is of no value today, pervasive corruption curbs the country’s development. They can now easily buy people’s votes,” he charged. “The parliamentary killings on October 27, 1999 happened [under the current administration] and all those responsible for that were promoted in office.”