Tweet
POLLSTER SAYS LATE PREMIER'S IMAGE PROMOTED REPUBLICAN SUCCESS
By Ruzanna Stepanian
Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
June 5 2007
A leading sociologist sees the positive image of the late prime
minister as well as the fear of change by a large army of state
officials as the main reasons for the ruling party's landslide victory
in last month's parliamentary polls.
Aharon Adibekian on Tuesday revealed the results of the most recent
survey conducted by his Sociometer center showing that many of more
than 450,000 voters who gave their votes to the Republican Party of
Armenia (HHK) in the May 12 vote did so to preclude possible drastic
changes in government institutions.
At the same time, the sociologist downplayed the impact of large-scale
vote buying allegedly practiced by the HHK on the party's ultimate
success.
"No matter how much makeup you use, you can't make a woman, who is
ugly from birth, look beautiful," Adibekian explained, figuratively,
adding that cases of election bribes were few and insignificant during
the latest elections.
According to Adibekian, a major event that won many people's hearts
was the death of the Republican Party's long-serving leader and Prime
Minister Andranik Markarian in late March, only weeks before the
legislative polls, in which his party's main contender was expected to
be wealthy businessman Gagik Tsarukian's pro-presidential Prosperous
Armenia party (BHK).
Adibekian admitted that two of his pre-election forecasts proved
wrong. One of them, he said, was the BHK's de-facto crushing defeat as
it eventually received half as many votes as predicted by the leading
sociologist, and secondly was the better-than-expected performance
by the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) that received more
votes than expected.
Adibekian's pre-election analysis put the BHK in a position to receive
some 32 percent of the popular vote, but the party finished only a
distant second with less than 15 percent.
The sociologist says the BHK party membership figures had been largely
inflated and that Gagik Tsarukian was misled on that. "It was a fake,"
Adibekian said, adding that his center's estimations gave the party
a maximum of 100,000 members, which is in stark contrast with the
400,000 membership figure declared by the BHK leadership before and
during the election race.
Besides, Adibekian said, the BHK followers had certain financial
expectations, which were not satisfied.
In contrast, he hinted, Dashnaktsutyun managed to secure more votes
ostensibly using vote buying methods.
Overall, Adibekian said that the parties that based their election
strategy on negativism fared poorly, and on the contrary the ones that
built their campaign around positive platforms proved more successful.
By Ruzanna Stepanian
Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
June 5 2007
A leading sociologist sees the positive image of the late prime
minister as well as the fear of change by a large army of state
officials as the main reasons for the ruling party's landslide victory
in last month's parliamentary polls.
Aharon Adibekian on Tuesday revealed the results of the most recent
survey conducted by his Sociometer center showing that many of more
than 450,000 voters who gave their votes to the Republican Party of
Armenia (HHK) in the May 12 vote did so to preclude possible drastic
changes in government institutions.
At the same time, the sociologist downplayed the impact of large-scale
vote buying allegedly practiced by the HHK on the party's ultimate
success.
"No matter how much makeup you use, you can't make a woman, who is
ugly from birth, look beautiful," Adibekian explained, figuratively,
adding that cases of election bribes were few and insignificant during
the latest elections.
According to Adibekian, a major event that won many people's hearts
was the death of the Republican Party's long-serving leader and Prime
Minister Andranik Markarian in late March, only weeks before the
legislative polls, in which his party's main contender was expected to
be wealthy businessman Gagik Tsarukian's pro-presidential Prosperous
Armenia party (BHK).
Adibekian admitted that two of his pre-election forecasts proved
wrong. One of them, he said, was the BHK's de-facto crushing defeat as
it eventually received half as many votes as predicted by the leading
sociologist, and secondly was the better-than-expected performance
by the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) that received more
votes than expected.
Adibekian's pre-election analysis put the BHK in a position to receive
some 32 percent of the popular vote, but the party finished only a
distant second with less than 15 percent.
The sociologist says the BHK party membership figures had been largely
inflated and that Gagik Tsarukian was misled on that. "It was a fake,"
Adibekian said, adding that his center's estimations gave the party
a maximum of 100,000 members, which is in stark contrast with the
400,000 membership figure declared by the BHK leadership before and
during the election race.
Besides, Adibekian said, the BHK followers had certain financial
expectations, which were not satisfied.
In contrast, he hinted, Dashnaktsutyun managed to secure more votes
ostensibly using vote buying methods.
Overall, Adibekian said that the parties that based their election
strategy on negativism fared poorly, and on the contrary the ones that
built their campaign around positive platforms proved more successful.