Serge Sargsyan Ends Campaign in Yerevan
Vahan Hovannisian Pre-Election Campaign Youth Meeting, Moscow Cinema, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2008
The final pre-election campaign meeting by governmental favorite, prime minister Serge Sargsyan, was originally billed as taking place in Yerevan’s Republic Square. However, the swarm of people walking up the central Abovian street and Northern Avenue indicated something different and that was indeed the case. Probably in response to Levon Ter-Petrossian’s rally which drew as many as 40,000 people the day before, Sargsyan’s had been shifted there to once again participate in what can only be described as the numbers game.
That wasn’t unexpected and was actually quite predictable, in fact. Indeed, in such a game it was inevitable that calling upon a variety of administrative resources, the prime minister would win in lieu of actual proper campaigning. Not only did Sargsyan manage to fill Liberty Square, but people were also gathered on much of the territory outside the park surrounding Yerevan Opera — including Northern Avenue. A1 Plus criticizes the prime minister on the basis that many people were from the regions of Armenia, but if truth be known, so too were many of former president Levon Ter-Petrossian, ARF-D candidate Vahan Hovannisian, and Orinats Yerkir’s Artur Baghdasarian.
The full post is available on the Armenia Election Monitor 2008.
