RFE/RL reports that the U.S. born former foreign minister Heritage party leader, Raffi Hovannisian, is once again attempting to put forward his candidacy for the presidential election in Armenia early next year. However, as was the case in 2003, problems linger with his citizenship. Under the constitution, presidential candidates must be citizens of the Republic of Armenia for at least 10 years. Hovannisian was only granted his in 2001.

Hovannisian had been controversially barred by from contesting the previous presidential election on the grounds that he had not been an Armenian citizen for the previous ten years, something which is required by the country’s constitution. […]

Kocharian rejected at the time Hovannisian’s demand that his citizenship be backdated to 1991. The U.S.-born politician claimed that his repeated citizenship applications had been illegally ignored by Kocharian and his predecessor Levon Ter-Petrosian.

In a written appeal to Kocharian, Hovannisian’s Zharangutyun (Heritage) party stopped short of explicitly accusing the Armenian president of breaking the law, only urging him to “restore justice.” It also argued that Hovannisian had served as independent Armenia’s first foreign minister and is now one of the country’s most popular political figures.

“Based on the above-mentioned [arguments,] the Zharangutyun Party’s board expects him [Kocharian] to immediately reconsider and satisfy the public demand to grant Raffi K. Hovannisian citizenship effective from the declaration of the Republic,” the statement said.

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