Artur Baghdasarian Pre-Election Campaign Rally, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2008

It was the largest pre-election campaign meeting in Yerevan’s Liberty Square to date. The organizers say 100,000 people gathered to hear Orinats Yerkir party leader and presidential candidate Artur Baghdasarian speak, but as we know that the area in the park behind the Yerevan Opera can’t hold more than 20-25,000 maximum, that’s pretty unlikely. It was nonetheless at least as large as any rally by another presidential contender, Levon Ter-Petrossian, and probably bigger.

Of course, as we saw in last year’s parliamentary election when Heritage favored actual campaigning to gathering as many existing supporters in one place for the media to cover, numbers aren’t everything. However, opinion polls currently show Baghdasarian in second place to the prime minister as election day draws closer. Moreover, like rallies staged by nearly every other candidate to date, those supporters gathered together, as if the size of a crowd you can assemble in Liberty Square equates to actual voting on polling day, were not just from Yerevan.

Even so, the meeting was impressive. Compared to similar meetings held by Ter-Petrossian, those attending were more representative of the broad spectrum of Armenian society and for sure they were louder and more enthusiastic. Significantly, among them were many more youth. Of note compared to other candidates contesting the vote against the presidential favorite Serge Sargsyan, Baghdasarian’s Orinats Yerkir is one of only two opposition parties currently represented in the Armenian National Assembly. The party polled 95,324 or 7.1 percent of the vote.

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