Former ARF member as a presidential candidate

Hovik Aghazaryan has announced that he intends to run for president in Armenia’s elections to be held on February 18. During a press conference on Friday, he said he is confident that if the elections were held this Saturday, 5,000 people would vote for him.

To note, Hovik Aghazaryan is a Candidate of Technical Sciences, he has worked at the National Academy of Sciences as a researcher, but he is currently unemployed. He was a member of opposition ARF Dashnaktsutyun Party, but he was ousted from the party “for disciplinary violations.” Even though Aghazaryan was expelled from ARF, he considers himself a bearer of ARF ideologies, and he is even prepared to withdraw his presidential candidacy so as not to get in the way of ARF’s presidential nominee.

The unemployed presidential hopeful is not concerned by the AMD 8 million (approx. $19,725) election deposit, and he informed that his son has a construction business in Saint Petersburg, Russia.

He noted that it will not be a great tragedy for him if the Central Electoral Commission does not register him as a presidential candidate, and noted that they have a plot of land in Surenavan village and he is busy with this land.

Hovik Aghazaryan stated that he considers ruling Republican Party (RPA) candidate—that is, incumbent President Serzh Sargsyan—as his main challenger in the elections. At the same time he ruled out the possibility of supporting either the RPA nominee or opposition bloc Armenian National Congress leader—and First President—Levon Ter-Petrosyan.