Although much of the past week has been concerned with the return of the first president, Levon Ter Petrosian, to active politics and his possible nomination for next year’s election, it’s of course important to note that others also plan to run. One of the first to announce such an intention even as far back as the parliamentary election held in May is Orinats Yerkir’s Artur Baghdasarian. RFE/RL reminds its readers that this is still the case and that he also intends to go it alone.

Former parliament speaker Artur Baghdasarian will stand in Armenia’s forthcoming presidential election and will not endorse any other opposition candidate, his Orinats Yerkir Party said on Monday.

The announcement followed a weekend meeting of the Orinats Yerkir leadership that discussed the party’s pre-election strategy. It bore out analysts’ forecasts that Baghdasarian will not withdraw from the presidential race in favor of any other opposition leader.

“The Orinats Yerkir will participate in the forthcoming presidential elections with its own candidate,” Artashes Avoyan, a senior Orinats Yerkir parliamentarian, told RFE/RL. “We are talking about the party leader,” he said.

Avoyan added that Baghdasarian will be formally nominated as a presidential candidate at a party congress scheduled for the beginning of November.

The development is a further indication that Armenia’s divided opposition will fail to rally around one or even two major candidates ahead of the presidential ballot due in February or March. Such a consolidation is widely seen as a necessary condition for mounting a serious challenge against Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian, the election favorite. Several opposition politicians have already declared their intention to run for president on their own.

Nevertheless, all focus remains on Ter Petrosian and prime minister, Serzh Sarkisyan, and even though the former has still not declared his intention to run. Last night at dinner with senior political figures from a foreign diplomatic mission, for example, all talk between the other guests from civil society and local think tanks was on Ter Petrosian’s recent meeting with representatives from the Armenian Revolutionary Federation — Dashnaktsutiun. Yesterday, RFE/RL also reported on that meeting.

The full post is available on the 2008 Presidential Election Monitor Blog.