Levon Ter Petrosian, Opposition Rally, Liberty Square, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2007

With the race to win the presidential election in Armenia scheduled now heating up, RFE/RL reports that four main opposition party leaders remain reluctant to support the bid by former president, Levon Ter Petrosian, to succeed the incumbent, Robert Kocharian. Significantly, their support might prove crucial in determining the outcome of the 19 February vote.

A senior member of the Orinats Yerkir Party, one of the two opposition groups represented in the National Assembly, told RFE/RL that its governing board will meet on Thursday to discuss Ter-Petrosian’s proposal. The Orinats Yerkir leader, former parliament speaker Artur Baghdasarian, has long been harboring presidential ambitions and has until now ruled out the possibility of his withdrawal from the race in favor of another opposition contender.

A spokesman for the other opposition parliamentary party, Zharangutyun, said it can not respond to the offer because its U.S.-born leader Raffi Hovannisian is not in Armenia at the moment. Hovannisian and his allies insist that he is eligible to run for president despite not having been an Armenian citizen for the past ten years, something which is required by the country’s constitution. They say his repeated citizenship applications had been illegally ignored by Ter-Petrosian and the current President Robert Kocharian.

Artashes Geghamian, who was also a key opposition contender of the 2003 presidential ballot, responded coolly to Ter-Petrosian’s call, welcoming only the ex-president’s readiness to serve as a “tool” for regime change. “In that sense I find positive Levon Ter-Petrosian’s offer and readiness to serve the opposition,” he said. “As to how we will make use of that readiness, that will be discussed at a meeting of our party’s presidium.”

Vazgen Manukian, another opposition heavyweight who had been Ter-Petrosian’s main challenger in the troubled presidential election of September 1996, was even more dismissive of his erstwhile foe. “Candidates always make such offers. The trouble is that there is an element of blackmail in that offer,” he said.

Manukian also made it clear that he does not consider Ter-Petrosian an “alternative” to Kocharian or Sarkisian. He has repeatedly stated that he will contest the presidential election in any case.

The full post is available on the Armenia Election Monitor 2008.