“I am a bit surprised that a issue of a single unified candidate has gained such attention both on the part of our politicians and among those people who consider themselves political scientists,” said Robert Kocharyan on November 14 at the ArmProdExpo 2007 exhibition. 

It is a matter of surprise to me too, and this is the first time that President Kocharyan and I have been surprised by the same thing.

Over the past fifteen years, all the alliances set up in Armenia - with the exception of Miasnutyun (Unity) established by Vazgen Sargsyan and Karen Demirchyan - have been unions of the weak.  They have gathered either centered around personalities or based on the principle of coming together.  Miasnutyun was an exception because it was created by powerful individuals who pooled together their powerful resources.  No alliance or unity candidate has emerged victorious in Armenia.  That is why the idea of forming alliances and gathering around a single candidate has now become very complicated.

Except for the Republic Party of Armenia (RPA), all the political powers who plan to participate in the upcoming elections either through their own representative or through a corporate candidate, have declared one aim - to free Armenia from the flawed system set up by the ruling authorities.  It would otherwise not make sense for them to participate in the elections.  Can this aim unite everyone?  I think not.  This is because each of them considers this their aim alone and sees themselves as the ones who must gain victory over the authorities.  I say this with the utmost honesty, without believing any of the conspiracy theories in the public that some of the opposition politicians have struck deals with the government and have grown dependent on them.

Yes, each of them wants to reach their aim by themselves.  The larger aim is the same, and as Robert Kocharyan himself noted, you cannot divide up the President’s chair.  But does that rule out the possibility of any collaboration by opposition candidates?  I think not, because if we were to look at the components making up this larger aim, we would see that in the run up to the elections, there are issues that relate to everyone’s interests.

Let us take, for example, informational isolation and inequity.  Can all the opposition candidates unite around a solution to these problems, or should each candidate wait for pity from the director of this-or-that TV station or for something that fits in well with Serzh Sargsyan’s PR? Can all the opposition candidates sign a mutual declaration and warn the authorities that there cannot be a legitimate President in such conditions?

There are also issues related to the process of conducting the elections.  During a rally on November 16, presidential candidate Levon Ter-Petrosyan announced that he was preparing to go to respected international organizations with proposals to change some aspects of the election process, hoping for their intercession.  Would the other candidates unite behind these proposals and perhaps add their own, or would they be satisfied with the Electoral Code as it currently stands?

Standing united against the violations conducted by the authorities is no less important.  Today, police are settling accounts with Narek Galstyan, the head of the Social Democratic Hunchakyan Party Sargis Tkhruni youth union, for passing out flyers for Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s rally, but the same could happen tomorrow to activists from Orinats Yerkir  (Country of Law), Azgayin Miavorum (National Union), Azgayin Joghovrdavarakan Miutyun (National Democratic Union), Nor Jamanakner (New Times) and even the Dashnaktsutyun (Armenian Revolutionary Federation).

It is one thing when individual candidates or separate organizations come up with declarations critical of the government, but it is something totally different when everyone is united in pointing out certain defects and in expressing the will to remove them together.

A representative of an international organization listened to my views on media control during a personal conversation and noted his surprise at the fact that he had not felt that there was strong public concern in this regard even though he had received such information from separate individuals and politicians.  But the public today can be properly represented by a group of such people who wish to occupy the President’s seat through the vote of the people.

When I imagine victory in the case of each opposition candidate, I cannot envision the opposition of tomorrow.  The political field is such that if the current authorities suffer a defeat they will immediately bury themselves within the victors (a similar phrase was used by Robert Kocharyan himself).  That is to say, the group which should have naturally been transformed into the opposition will try to dissolve into the government, especially since the future President would not be authorized to dismiss the National Assembly, according to the new Constitution.

So who will be among those in opposition to the future government? Most importantly, under what conditions will they operate- strictly regulated media carrying out their orders? Impunity for state agencies? Electoral Codes penned by Ashotyans and Galust Sahakyans?

By uniting against anything impeding free elections, each candidate is automatically taking an oath before the rest not to repeat the same mistakes if they come to power.  In the event of victory, each candidate would first take upon himself the resolution of those issues, while in case of defeat, they would look to do everything they could to continue their work as part of the opposition.

By uniting against anything impeding free elections, political powers would sign a unique declaration which would help establish a civilized country in the future.

“To love does not mean to gaze into each other’s eyes, but rather to look together in the same direction,” said Antoine de Saint Exupery.  Clearly, there are people among those vying for the president’s seat that cannot gaze at one another, but if they looked together in the same director, they would the Armenia of tomorrow, for which they must begin to fight today.