Candidate: We can even have casualties (video)
The parliamentary election candidates of the Free Democrats Party do not compete with one another, rather, they want to get as many votes as possible to have seats in the next parliament. The party has fielded six candidates in Constituency N1 that covers Nor-Nork, Avan, Kanaker-Zeytun administrative districts. “It does not matter whether the ballots will be cast for Stepan Safaryan, Hripsime Bocholyan or Hovsep Avetisyan because our aim is to bring victory to our people,” says Stepan Safaryan. Activists and candidates of the Free Democrats party today held a campaign rally in Yerevan’s Nor Nork district. Walking through the streets, they handed out campaign booklets to passersby and urged voters to back their party in the April parliamentary elections. Some were delighted to see Stepan Safaryan in their neighborhood while others refused to take the booklets. The pledges of the party did sound convincing to a saleswoman at a local market, who is an ardent supporter of Gagik Tsarukyan. “His mother, Roza Tsarukyan, can sit on the throne and live her life to the fullest but she works and breeds bees,” said the woman who lives in Abovyan city. Mr Tsarukyan is sitting in a saddle warmly and we are freezing here. I live in this district [Nor Nork] and I see how it is being destroyed like a jungle,” said Hovsep Avetisyan, another candidate from the Free Democtrats party. The candidates expressed their concerns about the recent incident in Jrarat village in which representatives of the Republican Party of Armenia (HHK) attacked and injured supporters of the Ohanyan-Raffi-Oskanian alliance. “We can even have casualties. Nothing is excluded as law enforcement agencies do not ensure the safety of people during the campaign. You also see that the situation is very tense. One of our political figures said that the race has turned into a gladiatorial game,” said candidate Gagik Baghdasaryan. He thinks the number of incidents will increase as election day draws near.
