Expert: PR of candidates should proceed from society’s mentality

PR of the presidential candidates should proceed from the society’s mentality. For example, if a candidate goes to the hairdresser’s or shakes hands with people in the street, Armenian society perceives such actions as artificial. Armen Badalian, an expert specializing in political and electoral technologies, expressed this opinion at the meeting with reporters today.

“If you shake someone’s hand, it does not mean that this person, who was happy to shake hands with you, will vote for you on the polling day,” he noted.

When speaking about another presidential candidate, Paryur Hayrikian, Armen Badalian said: “I don’t know whether the shooting incident was unexpected or not, but it was strange”.

As regards the candidate Hrant Bagratian, he said Bagratian overestimates the role of his program. “Bagratian is trying to explain Harvard University economics to voters, but people are not interested in such things. Such programs aroused interest in the 1990s, but not now,” the speaker stressed.

In his words, an election program is an opportunity for a candidate to introduce himself to the public and create an image, but candidates should not overestimate the role of their programs.

When commenting on the actions of candidate Andrias Ghukasian who is on hunger strike, Badalian said time showed that society does not recognize him.

“He believes that he can solve some issues by going on hunger strike, but in reality his hunger strike is aimless and will not solve any problem,” the expert said.

As regards the candidate Serzh Sargsyan, Badalian called him elected president, a president elected thanks to his resources.
“He has administrative and financial resources, as well as the votes of citizens absent from Armenia. There are about 200,000 such votes,” Armen Badalian said in conclusion.