Lesser of Two Evils (Reprise)

It’s not the first time we’ve heard the presidential election described in such terms, and I daresay it won’t be the last. Following Vazgen Manukian’s cue, Armenian Revolutionary Federation — Dashanktsutyun (ARF-D) candidate Vahan Hovannisian decries continuing attempts by both local and international media to frame the coming vote as a choice between just two candidates.

However, opinion polls and last year’s parliamentary election make such a presumption premature to say the least, something that was perhaps illustrated by yesterday’s pre-election campaign rally by another candidate, Artur Baghdasarian. Moreover, some opposition forces such as Heritage do not believe any opposition candidate can win unless they unite with other rivals.

Regardless, RFE/RL reports that Hovannisian laments what he considers to be the choice thrust on the electorate of the vote being between the “lesser of two evils.”

“The people are faced with an artificial choice,” Vahan Hovannisian said during a campaign trip to the southern Armavir region.

“Unhappy with their downtrodden status, the people, especially their unconscious part, are going to elect the worst, instead of the bad,” he told voters in Parakar, a village just outside Yerevan. “But who says that we must make a choice between the bad and the worst? Why aren’t we making a choice between the good and the bad?”

By “the worst” the deputy speaker of Armenia’s parliament appeared to mean former President Levon Ter-Petrosian, who had controversially banned Dashnaktsutyun and jailed some of its leaders, including Hovannisian, during his rule.