A number of political analysts think that although the main struggle is expected to be waged between Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan and former president Levon Ter-Petrosyan, the 28-day race should be an interesting one and by law must end at midnight February 17.

“This pre-election period will be essentially different from the previous elections,” says Chairman of the Center of Political Technologies Suren Surenyants. “There are two key candidates between whom the main pre-election debate will proceed. Running their campaigns, the rest will in one way or another support either of them.”

http://www.armenianow.com/?action=viewArticle&AID=2760&lng=eng&IID=1169

However, she neglects to state that Surenyants is or was a member of the radical opposition and likely to be counted among Ter-Petrossian’s supporters. Unfortunately, independent observers appear hard to find in Armenia these days, but a pity that ArmeniaNow quoted him without soliciting other opinions or identifying his partisan political affiliation.

Head of the Informational Department of the Republic party, political secretary Suren Surenyants was the first arrested. He was accused of inflammatory speech during a February 28 rally in the Shengavit Community of Yerevan on the day commemorating the pogroms of Sumgait, Azerbaijan.

For saying “We must do everything so that the earth would burn under this regime’s feet”, he was convicted of instigating an overthrow of power. And for saying “With their acts of violence Robert Kocharyan and Serzh Sargsyan don’t differ from Azeri hooligans” he was found guilty of insulting state authorities.

http://www.armenianow.com/archive/2004/2004/july09/news/index.htm

Interestingly, Grigorian highlighted Surenyants’ political bias in an article for EurasiaNet a year ago, but not in this one. Surenyants’ political center is apparently that of the radical opposition Republic party, one of Ter-Petrossian’s main backers.

Suren Surenyants, a political scientist and head of an analytical center run by the opposition Hanrapetutyun (Republic) Party, […]

Personally, I think that political figures outside the race such as Raffi Hovannisian truly understand what a democratic election is. The pre-election campaign period has only now officially started, although Ter-Petrossian has been campaigning for months, and we won’t know who the public will support until nearer voting day. For now, many Armenians remain uninterested or undecided so the pre-election campaign is crucial.