Levon Ter-Petrossian: Return of the King

Photojournalism will form an important component of the Armenia Election Monitor 2008, and while the pre-election campaign will not officially start until tomorrow, some candidates have already been campaigning for several months. Perhaps the most prominent of those is former president, Levon Ter-Petrossian, who effectively started his pre-election campaign on 21 September last year.

Anyway, albeit as a first rough test, some images from the rallies which followed are now available as an audio slideshow. The sound quality leaves a little to be desired, but it is anticipated that the rough edges will be smoother for later photo presentations which will also include ambient sound and a more polished script. For now, though, the first test presentation starts as follows and may be viewed by clicking the preview below.

Although the pre-election campaign period doesn’t officially start until Monday 21st January, unofficially it started months ago in September with the return of Armenia’s first and former president, Levon Ter-Petrossian, to active politics. Starting from October, Ter-Petrossian and his supporters held political rallies once a month. Sympathetic journalists and his supporters in civil society put the number of those attending each meeting at anywhere between 20-100,000 people. Independent observers put it more like 12-15,000.

Whatever the number, one thing was certain. Ter-Petrossian’s return introduced an element of uncertainty and unpredictability into the race to succeed the incumbent president in the election to be held next month. Considered more like a King to his supporters, government and opposition activists started to describe the 19 February 2008 vote as shaping up to be a two horse race between Ter Petrossian and the prime minister, Serge Sargsyan.

Others such as veteran opposition politician Vazgen Manukian instead warned that while many Armenians despise the current authorities, many more dislike Ter-Petrossian.