Heritage Party Leader offers Armenian president "recipes" to legitimize upcoming presidential election

• Monday, September 24, 14:35

 Heritage Party leader Raffi Hovannisian has sent a letter to President Serzh Sargsyan wherein he touched upon the upcoming presidential election and the situation in the country.

In his letter, Hovannisian offers his "recipes" to legitimize the presidential election of 2013 as he considers the president's efforts in the given area insufficient. In particular, Raffi Hovannisian calls belated and ineffective the president's discussion with the executive power, during which the president harshly criticized the government headed by Tigran Sargsyan.

Raffi Hovannisian made a point of the large-scale irregularities in the last parliamentary elections in the country, including vote bribery and use of administrative levers by the ruling Republican Party.

In this context, Hovannisian offers the president and all the high-ranking officials to refuse from the positions of the heads and members of the Trusteeship Councils of the higher educational establishments, to close the offices of the Republican Party in the state administrative buildings or provide other political forces with offices in the given buildings on equal conditions.

In addition, Hovannisian offers terminating activity of the Republican Party at the President's Administration, prohibiting budget funding of the ruling party and politicization of the country's force departments. He offers preventing any pressure on the local self-government during the election.

Raffi Hovannisian comes out against use of administrative levers by the ruling party during the presidential election, provision of equal rights to TV broadcasting, TV advertising and other political ads to all the political forces. He insists on prohibition of any charity by political forces and their leaders during the election campaign and comes out against use of the army and the Church in electoral processes.

Another "recipe" of legitimizing the elections is transition to the proportional system of elections to the parliament, publishing of the electoral registers, revealing and punishment of everyone engaged in voter fraud irrespective of the authority and position.