“Media showed neutral attitude towards Kocharyan”
This year the presidential campaign started later as compared with previous campaigns. The reason is the uncertainty reigning in the political domain ahead of February's presidential elections, President of the Yerevan Press Club (YPC) Boris Navasardyan told reporters on Monday.
He presented the findings of an interim monitoring report that covered the period from Oct. 1 to Nov. 20. The monitoring included the Public Television of Armenia, Shant TV, Yerkir Media, Armenia, Kentron, Armnews, Armenian Second TV Channel, Public Radio and Armradio. Thirty-three citizens were named as potential presidential candidates during the study.
"Leader of the Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK) Gagik Tsarukyan and former foreign minister, a BHK-affiliate Vartan Oskanian were among the possible candidates in October. However, the picture changed in November after Oskanian was involved in a criminal lawsuit on charges of money laundering," said Mr Navasardyan.
The leader of the Heritage party, Raffi Hovhannisian and Armenia's first President Levon Ter-Petrosyan are also included in the list of potential presidential nominees. The aforesaid media outlets have demonstrated comparatively neutral attitude only towards second President Robert Kocharyan.
