Armenia: heritability and lack of alternatives

20 Armenian communities, including Abovyan, Alaverdi and Artashatm, held elections to local self-governance administrations on June 7. The Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) won the elections in 16 of the communities, most of their candidates were incumbent heads of administrations. Karan Paremuzyan and Vaagn Gevorgyan became the mayors of Alaverdi and Abovyan respectively, both belong to the RPA. Argam Abramyan, a member of the RPA, son of Prime Minister Ovik Abramyan, won the elections in Artashat.

One essential hallmark of the June 7 elections was the overt tendency toward growing nepotism in the government. In an interview with 7or.am, columnist Koryun Manukyan said that Argam Abramyan was not the first son of a high-ranking official to take part in the elections. In particular, another RPA member Andranik Margaryan made sure that his son Taron became the head of the Avan community of Yerevan.

Elections without alternatives took place in 9 communities. In general, they are not a new phenomenon for self-governance elections. Candidates are often fielded nominally, some of them pull out of the elections and don't hold campaigns. In other words, the victors are often known before the voting process. However, it is the first time that such elections as non-alternative elections, when only one candidate is running, especially in half of communities, have been held in Armenia. Thus, the veiled tendencies have become conspicuous. The circumstance can be dubbed an essential hallmark of the June 7 elections to self-governance administrations.

The ruling RPA has always focused on the self-governance elections. A certain mechanism of mutually beneficial collaboration has been developed, where the RPA offers huge financial, human, information and administrative resources to its candidates. Having been elected, heads of communities give the RPA great support at the parliamentary and presidential elections, providing the necessary number of votes. Without opposition candidates, the scheme is practically flawless. It is worth noting that the opposition does not take part in the self-governance elections, pointing out their lack of resources. The most resource-rich opposition party, Prosperous Armenia, has fielded its candidates in a set of communities, succeeding on many occassions. However, the party suffers from well-known ordeals, so it was passive in the June 7 elections, just like other opposition forces.

The opposition does have the capabilities needed to concentrate resources and compete for self-governance seats. However, the elections have another eminent accent: the schedule of self-governance elections has never been clearly outlined, unlike it is in democratic states. The electoral campaign is, hence, somewhat inconspicuous in Armenia. If municipal elections were held in the country on one day (like in France), the opposition would have a chance to make a systemic approach. Armenia does not look like a federative state where every single state or territory has its own political map. If the self-governance elections had clear regions, opposition parties would concentrate all their resources in the regions. The referendum on enlarging the communities held in Tavush, Lori and Syunik on May 17 proves that the opposition can put up a political fight. In particular, the Armenian National Congress (ANC) opposition party concentrated its power in Tavush and Lori and gained political success. It means that proper organization can be fruitful in the regions.

But one of the main causes of w opposition's passiveness in the self-governance elections is in the self-governance system itself. The system is hardly efficient at all. Authority in the self-governance system is quite limited, budgets in the regions are small and local governments are highly dependent on the central government, the Ministry of Territorial Governance in this case, in financial issues. The ministry specializes in distributing the central budget between communities. The republicans have much better changes to get their share of the central budget than any other parties, obviously. The opposition is also reluctant to field candidates because it falls under the control of the central government after winning municipal elections. In other words, the opposition has little interest in the self-governance elections, because it sees no real prospects of political power in winning them.

The described system of self-governance has been active for about 15 years. Some analysts say that the paradox of the situation is that the country does not need a Ministry of Territorial Governance, it needs a Ministry of Regional Development. Some serious experts believe that the counry needs constitutional amendments to the self-governance mechanism. The top government officials show no response to that, sadly. While this system continues to exist, when the center distributes finances among regions, expecting any positive changes in government formation is naive.