Republican Party Campaign Rally, Erebuni, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia for EurasiaNet 2007

Finally some photographs of yesterday’s election campaign rally by the ruling Republican party in the Erebuni district of Yerevan. About 1-2,000 people took part in the meeting which was followed by one in the Shengavit capital of the city. Earlier in the day, the Republicans effectively held another meeting for pensioners staged by the Armenia’s state pension fund which is probably a use of administrative levers, but anyway.

RFE/RL has more.

Nearly one quarter of the country’s 2.3 eligible voters are above the retirement age, and their votes will be crucial for the outcome of the May 12 parliamentary elections. The HHK underscored that fact by gathering more than thousand of them in one of Yerevan’s largest concert halls. In its election platform, the ruling party commits itself to more than doubling the modest average amount of their pensions to 33,500 drams ($94) within the next five years.

Sarkisian criticized other election contenders, presumably including the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun), the HHK’s junior coalition partner, that have promised much steeper pension hikes if they do well in the polls. He called such pledges “fairy tales,” again emphasizing that his party’s program is “realistic.”

“Today one veteran’s bitterness or dire social condition may cast shadow on our past victory and weaken our spirit of resistance,” he said in a speech followed by a concert. “In this situation, some political forces are coming forward and promising to raise your pensions tenfold or hundredfold in order to win over you.”

[…]

“We thought they wanted to give us aid,” said Hakobian. “They should have told us the truth … They duped us to come here and watch Serzh Sarkisian give us false promises,”

“They phoned me but didn’t say who is inviting me here,” said another woman.

The meeting with pensioners was not the only election-related event attended by Sarkisian on Thursday. He also met with students at Yerevan State University and led HHK campaign rallies in the city’s southern Erebuni and Shengavit districts later in the day.

Regardless, it didn’t look as though any of those attending the rally in Erebuni went against their will although it was interesting to note the number of people that mobbed the Prime Minister, Serzh Sarkisyan, at the end of the meeting with letters and pleas for help. Otherwise, while not as ecstatic as this week’s Orinats Yerkir rally, the children in the audience seemed to particularly enjoy themselves.

Interestingly, as the 12 May poll draws ever closer, we’re still not sure as to the real level of support for the ruling party in Armenia with some polls indicating it might be as high as 34 percent, while others say 13 percent. The other main pro-government’s ratings, that of Prosperous Armenia, also fluctuate between 32 percent and 11 percent. In reality, given that polls in Armenia are usually unreliable and serve partisan political purpose, the reality is probably that the truth lies somewhere in the middle.

Which means that’s there’s still everything to play for with the election a little over a week away. What does seem definite now, however, is that there will be an attempt to stage a “democratic revolution” on 13 May. Certainly, there will be protests, but whether they’re successful or not will depend on the results of the election and more importantly, the preliminary report of the OSCE/ODIHR released the same day.

Republican Party Campaign Rally, Erebuni, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia for EurasiaNet 2007