“According to our information, first President Levon Ter-Petrosian is visited these days by various oligarchs and businessmen that are serving and absolutely loyal to the current authorities,” says “Zhamanak Yerevan.” “They are trying to ascertain whether he intends to stand in the upcoming presidential elections. They leave Levon Ter-Petrosian without getting an answer to the question preoccupying them because he does not give a definite answer, saying that he still has time to make a decision.” The paper says the visitors pledge their allegiance to the ex-president and assure him that they would stand by his possible presidential bid.

According to “Hayots Ashkhar,” the official results of the May parliamentary elections are rejected most vocally by those parties that failed to win a single parliament seat and are thereby trying to rationalize their disastrous performance. “Quite naturally, it is the winning political forces — and the Republicans in the first instance — that found themselves in the position of a scapegoat,” writes the paper. “One should not doubt that the same will happen during the presidential elections. But maybe it’s time to learn from Karabakh. Maybe it is time to stop looking for scapegoats and blaming one’s failures on others.”

“Aravot” cites the findings of a new opinion poll by the Armenian Sociological Association according to which almost half of Armenians believe that the May elections were “free but not fair.” “Twenty-eight percent of those polled said the elections to the National Assembly were neither free, nor fair,” reports the paper. It says the survey also suggests that a considerable number of Armenians feel sorry that the opposition parties led by Stepan Demirchian and Artashes Geghamian failed to get into the new assembly.

ARTHUR BAGHDASARYAN CORRESPONDS TO A PRESIDENT’S CRITERIA

A1 Plus, 24 July, 2007

“Orinats Yerkir’’ party member Hovhannes Margaryan considers that both the authorities and the opposition should present their united candidates during the presidential elections. ”Unfortunately both fields talk about various candidates. Thus, the opposition cannot have only one candidate. 2-3 candidates will be nominated”, said Mr Margaryan.

Mr. Margaryan announced that he welcomed any collaboration in the opposition camp and said: ”There are candidates who do not have the chance of collecting 1% of the votes but talk about their candidatures”. He specified certain criteria that a presidential candidate should meet certain requirements. ”Among these criteria are the age, education, reputation, accomplished results, his popularity and input in the policy”.

“According to Mr Margaryan, Arthur Baghdasaryan completely corresponds to the above-mentioned criteria: ”I say this not as a member of ”Orinats Yerkir” party, but as a person concerned by the nation’s future”, said Hovhannes Margaryan. Highly estimating Arthur Baghdasaryan’s merits, Mr Margaryan said: ”When Arthur Baghdasaryan resigned from the post of the NA speaker, it turned into an incubator, where we observe how the laws are adopted. The fact that the nation believes in Arthur Baghdasaryan is proven by 100,000 votes collected by the ’’Oritnats Yerkir’’ party”.

“To the journalists’ question regarding whether Mr Baghdasaryan would withdraw his candidacy as a united candidate, Hovhannes Margaryan said: ”The negotiations will show”.

In related news, Shavarsh Kocharian had this to say on the opposition in Armenia:

NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY WILL NOT PARTICIPATE IN ELECTIONS

[…] The opposition should analyze the mistakes made during the parliamentary elections. If they do not do that, the opposition will not have success considers Mr Kocharyan. If the opposition does not undertake profound changes in its behavior, Shavarsh Kochrayan does not see any positive result. […]