March 23, 2009

Heritage’s Statement on the May 31 Elections for Yerevan’s Council of Elders

The Heritage Party,

• reflecting the profound significance of the elections for the Council of Elders of Yerevan, and in terms of the institutional development of Armenia;
• considering these elections as yet another chance for the country to be endowed with legitimate  representation in the Armenian capital, chosen by the people through free, fair, and transparent elections;
• bearing in mind Yerevan’s central role as the political and economic capital of the country, which only elevates the elections for the Council of Elders to a significance nearly equivalent to national elections;
• remaining true to its adopted values, ideals and ethics;
• expressing with regret that it was impossible to a forge an accord with the Armenian National Congress (ANC) with respect to a united list of candidates for the elections;
• condemning the authorities’ limitations and restrictions on the freedom of speech, the continued maintenance of an environment of intolerance, the unsubstantiated and unfair accusations lodged against the Heritage Party and its founder Raffi K. Hovannisian disseminated over the years by the media in service of questionable motives on behalf of the authorities, including a deluge of lies, misrepresentations and disinformation which periodically grows worse especially prior to elections, as well as registering—for the record—certain opposition media’s attempts to imitate such defective and destructive tactics in recent weeks and doing this with the silent support or complicity of the ANC;
• acknowledging all too well that if, within the circumstances of the negative political atmosphere now reigning in the country, the opposition participates in the elections with two separate lists, the ensuing clash will become inevitable and unavoidable, and the victims will encompass the whole opposition and the entire population; and
• understanding that under such conditions one of these two oppositional forces must give way,

Hereby decides:

To refrain from presenting its own candidate list for the elections for Yerevan’s Council of Elders, to be held on May 31, 2009, and urges its voters and all Yerevan residents to cast their ballots in favor of the opposition.  

The Heritage Party further reaffirms its resolve, as the INDEPENDENT PUBLIC OVERSEER, to:

• wage an all-out effort to safeguard the integrity and protect the sanctity of the ballot of each and every citizen, and through its activities and those of the election commission members that it has appointed, to prevent all attempts toward falsification or interference with the distribution, handling, and counting of ballots, and to ensure an equal and unobstructed pre-election campaign period, thereby seeking to guarantee a free, fair, and transparent contest and, as a result, attaining legitimate elections; and 
• monitor the entire election process, and to record and inform the body politic and the appropriate law enforcement bodies of any and all cases of election fraud or voting irregularities.

The Heritage Party wishes all voters and political forces well and expresses its desire for a free and fair election. Let the will of the Yerevan residents triumph on May 31 and the citizens of the three-millennia-old capital of Armenia finally attain the blissful liberty that is anchored in the God-given right to choose.

23 March 2009
Yerevan