Campaign Advertising & Election Finances

Campaign advertising and financing for parliamentary and presidential elections in Armenia have always been controversial issues with most parties and candidates hiding and exceeding the amount of money they actually spend or have alloted. Gray areas in the electoral code have also been exploited by those running for office and it would appear that this presidential election is no different.

Many of the candidates launched their official campaign web sites long before the official pre-election campaign began on Monday, and others such as former president Levon Ter-Petrossian held rallies and distributed leaflets as well as DVDs in the last three months of last year that were clearly aimed at influencing public opinion for this election.

The Armenian Revolutionary Federation — Dashnaktutyun’s Vahan Hovannisian was also involved in various activities geared towards the presidential election before the campaign officially began.

Banners, posters and other merchandise have also been printed, presumably before the campaign began if declarations of expenditures and fund-raising are anything to go by, but so far not to the extent that they were for last year’s parliamentary election. Indeed, Panorama.am published a story on Tuesday indicating that officially not much money is rolling in or being spent.

According to the information released by Central Electoral Committee (CEC), at the moment no revenues or expenditures were made in the election funds of three presidential candidates. According to CEC official web portal, the elections funds of Tigran Karapetyan, People’s Party chairman, Aram Harutunyan, leader of National Concord party, and Arman Melikyan, nominated on civil initiation, are empty.

According to the same source, chairman of Orinats Yerkir Arthur Baghdasaryan has the most money in his election fund – 20,3 million Armenian drams. […] Vahan Hovanisyan is in the second place. He has 10 million drams and has transferred the money on his own. He is followed by Republican candidate Serzh Sargsyan with 8.6 million drams. Artashes Geghamyan is in the fourth place with 4 million drams. Vazgen Manukyan has the least money, 130 thousand drams and the money has been transferred by two physical entities. Levon Ter-Petrosyan has 1.493.500 Armenian drams mostly transferred by physical entities, 23 persons.

According to CEC figures, the only expenditure has been made by Artashes Geghamyan, 1 million 730 thousand Armenian drams. However, the election center of the candidate said Geghamyan has spent 4 million 270 thousand so far. […]

Yet, even if does turn out that more money is being spent than indicated by some of the candidates, the scale of advertising even now during the actual pre-election campaign is minimal with most candidates yet to make a visible impression on Yerevan even. Sure, the presidential favorite, prime minister Serge Sargsyan, was the first to appear, casting a watchful eye out onto the city from campaign billboards.

Nevertheless, the adverts went up somewhat slowly. Sargsyan’s election offices are also more visible, but again hardly a common sight if compared to the situation in last year’s parliamentary election. What is confusing, however, is the absence of the campaign propaganda of many other candidates although it has to be said that there are no reports of any problems in securing space at locations for display.

Nevertheless, while Sargsyan is more visible, it was only today that the first advertisements for opposition candidate Artur Baghdasarian started to appear in the Komitas district of Yerevan, and advertisements for Vahan Hovannisian appear to be limited to small posters on the occasional street corner.

To date, there are no visible advertisements for Levon Ter-Petrossian, Vazgen Manukian or the remaining five candidates in Komitas, at least, although it also has to be said that Baghdasarian’s adverts only appeared today.

It’s hard to say why this is. Certainly, there have so far been no reports of candidates complaining of lack of access to spots to advertise so hopefully it’s all just a matter of timing and the situation will change over the weekend. Even so, it does seem as though the start of the pre-election campaign is somewhat slower than previous votes.

Nevertheless, it’s somewhat strange to see the capital so comparatively devoid of advertisements, but let’s see if the situation doesn’t change soon enough. Certainly it should if only because an election isn’t an election unless it does. Still, unless some scandalous reports emerge anytime soon, the situation does seem to be more relaxed and within legal boundaries than before.