Public opinion poll: 72% of voters to vote for Serzh Sargsyan

• Wednesday, January 23, 14:47

President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan will receive 72% of votes at the upcoming presidential election, Aharon Adibekyan, Director of Sociometer Sociology Center told media, Wednesday.

He said that the public opinion poll that was conducted at the request of the ruling Republican Party of Armenia revealed that 58% of voters will participate in the election, while another 28% will not vote at all.  All the others have not decided whether to participate in the voting or not. He said that 72% of the citizens who are going to participate in the voting will vote in favor for the incumbent president, another 20% will support Heritage party leader Raffi Hovannisian, while Hrant Bagratyan, the leader of Azatutyun Party, and Paruyr Hayrikyan, the leader of the Union for National
Self-Determination Party will get by 3%-3.5% of votes. The remaining 4 candidates will receive some 0.01%, Adibekyan said.

He said that the fight is currently for the voters of the Armenian National Congress and Prosperous Armenia Party. By preliminary data, most of the pro-Levon voters will support Raffi Hovannisian, while the supporters of Prosperous Armenia will vote for Hovannisian and Sargsyan. The sociologist took a positive view of the two candidates' campaigns. He said that the public likes Raffi Hovannisian's sociability, while Serzh Sargsyan's campaign is like the presidential campaigns in the USA.

"The president prefers partial introduction of his program, laying the emphasis on specific vital issues and problems in every region he visits during his campaign," he said. The sociologist believes that Hrant Bagratyan's presidential campaign is badly planned. The candidate speaks on the economic language, which is not clear to the public.

"As regards the little known but very ambitious candidates, their syndrome is called paranoia in psychology and infantilism or romantics in politics," the sociologist said agrin. He is sure that hunger strikes and protests of the candidates are nothing but epatage and a way to attract attention.

The presidential candidates are as follows: incumbent president Serzh Sargsyan from the Republican Party and former prime minister Hrant Bagratyan from the Liberty Party. All the remaining are self- nominated candidates:  Leader of the Union for National Self-Determination Party Paruyr Hayrikyan, Leader of Heritage Party Raffi Hovannisian, Advisor for Political Issues of the Refugees and the International Law Civil Society Network, ex-foreign minister of NKR Arman Melikyan, Leader of National Accord Party Aram Haroutiunyan, political expert Andrias Ghukasyan, and specialist in epic Vardan Sedrakyan. The elections will be held on Feb 18 2013.