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

It used to be that pro-opposition journalists constantly referred to attendances at a series of rallies by former president, Levon Ter-Petrossian, as being an indication of a high level of support in the country. Forgetting the fact that estimates for those rallies at anywhere between 20-100,000 were widely off the mark, the main problem with such an approach was forgotten.

That is, assembling what is in reality anywhere between 10-15,000 people, mainly consisting of actual supporters, is not so difficult and in the past two weeks, two other leading candidates for the 19 February presidential election in Armenia not only managed to likely exceed the number for Ter-Petrossian, but also eclipse them in terms spirit as well as by assembling a more diverse crowd made up of all ages and classes.

On Sunday that was evident at Artur Baghdasarian’s pre-election campaign rally in Liberty Square, and also at yesterday’s meeting held by Vahan Hovannisian and Armenian Revolutionary Federation — Dashnaktsutyun (ARF-D). Despite the impressive showing in terms of rallies, in terms of support in society Baghdasarian narrowly leads Ter-Petrossian with 13.4 percent according to a British Populus poll, while Hovannisian has 7.6 percent.

Regardless, the ARF-D has shown itself to be better organized than any of the other challengers to the prime minister, Serge Sargsyan, especially when it comes to youth, and more mature in terms of actual campaigning. While Baghdasarian and especially Ter-Petrossian appear hell-bent on antagonizing the situation to the point of making clashes inevitable, Hovannisian has been critical, but also more aware of the need to attract votes by treating the electorate with a certain amount of respect.

Despite it’s previous obsession with seemingly only covering the pre-election campaign of Ter-Petrossian and Serge Sargsyan, RFE/RL’s English-language web site has more.

The Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun) rallied thousands of people in Yerevan on Friday to shore up voter support for its presidential candidate Vahan Hovannisian and urge Armenians to reject their current and former leaders.

Hovannisian, joined by other Dashnaktsutyun leaders, again sought to present himself as a viable alternative to the two mutually hostile camps that have taken the center stage in the Armenian presidential race. He also deplored a weak rule of law and a perceived lack of democracy in Armenia and pledged to “restore constitutional order” if elected president.

“The existing unjust and unfree situation allows the former authorities hiding their sins with that injustice to try to again play with the feelings of our people and base their election campaign on hatred,” Hovannisian, attacking former President Levon Ter-Petrosian and his allies.

“They are being met with the same hatred,” he said, referring to the country’s present leadership. “The behavior of the current authorities, which is the other extreme, contains the same hatred.”

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