National Assembly Deputy Artzvik Minasyan, who heads the ARF ticket in the upcoming Yerevan municipal elections, stated that he has noted a certain degree of unexpected passivity on the part of all political parties in the ongoing election campaign. At a press conference held earlier today, MP Minasyan stated, "I was expecting a more active campaign. Even the actions of the public NGO sector are less than I expected. Hopefully, the campaign will soon gain steam and that there is yet time to motivate the public and get the people in the right frame of mind and to organize a real debate of the issues." When asked by reporters why he was not personally making campaign appearances in various Yerevan neighborhoods, the ARF candidate stated that he was busy with other publicity tasks, notably responding to questions posed by the public via the campaign's website. "Taking into account our large team, we have delegated the campaign work amongst a number of working groups responsible for campaign publicity," Mr. Minasyan noted. Mr. Minasyan added that he will be making campaign appearances in each of Yerevan's districts, noting that, "We will also employ new campaign mechanisms as well. It can't be ruled out that we will even be going door to door to get out the vote in our favor." Commenting on the predictions of sociologist Aharon Adibekyan, Deputy Minasyan expressed his frustration that Armenia presently lacks a truly independent center of sociological analysis and that he takes a somewhat philosophical approach to such public questionnaires. "Naturally, everyone will try to propose a mechanism that satisfies the needs of the client. As a noted luminary once noted - sociology is a shadow that is used to frighten everyone but which no one has ever seen," Mr. Minasyan concluded.