| Candidate Kocharyan - for a European country with enhanced security Today presidential elections will be held in Armenia - the fourth since the declaration of independence. Supporters of the current president are convinced that Robert Kocharyan will win the first round with an obvious advantage. Their opponents claim that “if fair elections are held, the second round, without Kocharyan, is inevitable.”
Robert Kocharyan became president by winning early elections in March 1998. The current head of his campaign headquarters, Defense Minister Serzh Sargsyan, is convinced that the country will pass this test of democracy with honor. According to him, all previous elections in the republic were not ideal, but clear progress was observed from election to election.
There are fears that the opposition is preparing in advance to accuse the authorities of falsifying the voting results. However, Robert Kocharyan himself, having completed his pre-election trips to the regions, shows enviable calm, never tired of emphasizing the importance of maintaining internal political stability as a guarantee of future development.
“We want to build a country based on European values, a country of the European type, but taking into account the situation in the South Caucasus region and with a stronger security component,” Kocharyan said. This requires a combat-ready army and an established democratic order. “If, along with strengthening the army, we do not develop democracy, we will have problems,” Kocharyan said. - We must find this balance. Today we do not allow the army to interfere in political processes, and the officers are well aware of the inadmissibility of this.”
If re-elected for a second presidential term, Kocharyan intends to constructively cooperate with the opposition on a number of issues of a national nature. However, he is not going to “give away positions” in the name of preserving the opposition as such in the country. Gayane MOVSSYAN, Yerevan |
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