SOME 2250 VOTES LACKED TO ROBERT KOCHARIAN

PanARMENIAN.Net - The incumbent President, as it is known, lacked 0,2 percent, i.e. 2250 votes, for wining in the first round. Judging from the election results, the major part of the voters refused to give their votes to the opposition. The arithmetical calculations allow to assume that if not the candidates who took the 6th and 8th places, Robert Kocharian would have got 4041 votes more. It can be supposed that the not numerous electorate of Aram Harutyunyan, leader of the “National Accord” party and Ruben Avakyan, doctor of juridical sciences, retired colonel of national security, will give its votes to Kocharian in the second round. And it will not depend, whether the candidates decide officially to give their votes to the incumbent President, or not.

Serzh Sarkisyan, head of the pre-election headquarter of Robert Kocharian has spoken about the possibility of creating alliances with some of the former candidates. It is not difficult to understand, that Avakian and Harutyunyan are particularly meant. In the pre-election headquarters of Robert Kocharian they count on some part of the votes of oppositional candidates as well. Choosing between the incumbent President and the leader of the People’s party, many of them who in the first round voted for Artashes Geghamyan, Aram Karapetyan and Vazgen Manoukyan, may prefer Kocharian in the second round. The behavior of the parties which were backing Artashes Geghamyan in the first round, gains special importance in these conditions. If the candidate himself probably is going to support Stepan Demirchyan, his supporters from the communist party and the “Self Determination” union have not yet decided and do not want to loose all the ways leading to the command of Robert Kocharian. Veteran of the Armenian politics, leader of the Self Determination Union Paruyr Hayrikyan has already made it understand that he does not rule out the possibility of cooperating with the incumbent President.

In regard to the President’s possibilities to maintain the votes received in the first round, according to Serzh Sarkisyan, the carried out studies allow to state the stability of Kocharian's electorate. It will not be difficult for him to maintain his 707 thousand votes. So, it is evident that the incumbent President has enough bases to hope for victory in the second round. The readiness of Kocharian to obey the law requiring the holding of the second round is a good example. In 1996 President Levon Ter-Petrosyan could not resist the temptation to announce himself a winner following the results of the first round. It is not a secret that Levon Ter-Petrosyan sanctioned the falsifications necessary for having 51 percent of votes. We shall note that the insufficient figures in 1996 and 2003 differ a lot. When you know that some 0,2% are lacking from the victory, it is much more difficult to resist.

However, unlike the previous leader, the incumbent president has followed the rules of arithmetic according to which he couldn’t win in the first round. This fact should be appreciated properly not only by the voters but also by the foreign observers.