While the prime minister and especially the former president of the Republic of Armenia, Levon Ter Petrosian, trade accusations and engage in mud-slinging and black propaganda, Blogian comments on posts by myself and The Armenian Observer on the campaign being conducted by other candidates and parties. In particular, Observer says that the Armenian Revolutionary Federation — Dashnaktsutyun (ARF-D) appears to at least be attempting to appeal to the electorate.

Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF-Dashnaktsutyun), are really trying their PR skills at the upcoming presidential elections. Following the first ever ‘primaries’ in Armenia held by the party on November 24-29, where anybody could come and vote, making a choice between two candidates of Dashnaktsutyun – Vahan Hovhannisyan and Armen Rustamyan, the party now has printed out 400,000 ‘contracts’ with Vahan Hovhannisyan - the ARF candidate.

According to this contract, the presidential candidate promises to make social changes, maintain political stability, contribute to the unification of Armenians in the homeland, establish social solidarity, ensure free elections.

The news seems to have encouraged Simon at Blogian who says that while he wouldn’t vote for the party, he is at least pleased to see one party take a different and more civilized approach to elections in Armenia. For sure, many among the electorate are fed up with the type of politics as represented by Ter Petrosian and his radical opposition backers, other controversial figures such as Artashes Geghamian and Aram Karapetian, and the arrogance and complacency that administrative resources afford to incumbent officials.

I don’t think I’d vote for the ARF candidate if I lived in Armenia (in fact, I might boycott the elections), but I can’t hide my support for the healthy campaign they have been doing so far for the 2008 elections. They are clearly introducing a culture of fair and fun politics in Armenia which supports the democratization and builds general trust for elections.

Despite many dark aspects of the ARF history, I think they are making history today by creating a culture of transparency and trust through simple campaign strategies.

If only because they appear to be taking the election seriously and maturely, one might even hope that it is the ARF-D candidate, Vahan Hovannisian, that makes it into a likely second round rather than Ter Petrosian. Indeed, with speculation that Raffi Hovannisian is considering backing his namesake as well as the possibility that it will be the pre-election campaign period that will determine the votes of many undecided Armenians, perhaps the ARF-D example is one that others should take note of and follow.