Susanna Petrosyan, Yerevan. Exclusively to Vestnik Kavkaza
The process of registration in the Central Election Committee for participation in the elections to Yerevan Council of Elders is finished. The elections to the capital parliament are held on proportional lists. The election campaign begins on April 7 and will end on May 3rd, May 4th will be a day of silence, and May 5th – the elections.
Lists to the CEC were sent by the Republican Party of Armenia, Prosperous Armenia, Orinats Erkir (The Country of Legality), the Armenian National Congress, Arakelutyun (Mission), Dashnaktsutyun, and the bloc of parties “Hello, Yerevan” which unites small opposition parties Heritage, Democratic Motherland, Democratic Path, and the Conservative Party.
Unlike the presidential elections of February 18th which results were predetermined, the coming election campaign may be tough. Three leading opposition forces – PA, the ANC, and Dashnaktsutyun – which rejected participation in the presidential elections, stating that the results would be falsified, are ready to participate this time.
65 members are included into the Council of Elders of Yerevan. They are elected for four years and elect Yerevan’s mayor. The party which will get more than 40% of votes is considered a winner. In this case it gets 50%+1 vote, or 33 mandates in the parliament of Yerevan. The rest of mandates are distributed according to the number of gained votes. The minimal barrier for parties is 6%, for political blocs – 8%.
The presidential elections and post-election processes which were very moderate didn’t change the atmosphere of competition in the country, which is based on a difficult socio-economic situation and absence of a political will to change anything for the best. The phrase by the vice-speaker of the parliament, a representative of RPA Eduard Sharmazanov: “We won’t surrender Yerevan” caused confusion. This phrase absolutely reflects the Armenian authorities’ philosophy, who often follow a criminal honor code and seem to think that any yield at any front will mean their weakness.
“The expression “We won’t surrender Yerevan” resembles the phrase “Moscow is behind us!” A Yerevan resident will decide himself what political force he would support and what political force would form the Council of Elders. Nobody has put Yerevan into his pocket to surrender it or not. Any political force must not insult a citizen of Armenia,” the secretary of the parliamentary fraction of PA, Naira Zograbyan, thinks.
The opposition seems to be prepared for a tough competition. According to the head of the parliamentary fraction of the ANC Levon Zurabyan, “discontent among people is boiling over, and everybody understands that serious processes are needed; such a serious event will be the victory of the opposition in the elections to the Council of Elders in Yerevan.”
A firm attitude of competitors is explained by the fact that about 1/3 of all voters of Armenia lives in Yerevan because the capital is gaining key importance. Today the authorities try to diminish political importance of the elections.
The power is aimed at reproduction, while the opposition – at improvement of its position in the political arena as the votes which were given to the leader of the small party Heritage in the presidential elections expressed an attitude of the whole protest electorate. Raffi Ovannisyan earned 37% all over the country, and 43% in the capital.
Meanwhile, the elections of May 5th will be held within a new tendency for the Armenian political field – enlargement of political parties. This logical for democratic countries process is gaining an undue character in Armenia. Armenia has stepped into this way due to “turns of events.” The process of enlargement of parties began with the failed party system in the country where many parties are no more than titles, clubs, or political groups; in the country where only two normal elections have been held, which results were not put into question either by political forces or the society (the presidential elections 1991 and the parliamentary elections 1999). Today in Armenia two major parties exist, and this positive phenomenon was formed not due to a normal political competition or natural selection, but due to improvement of “political mussels” of the ruling RPA and the former party of the ruling coalition Prosperous Armenia. Today these forces are rivals, and it seems the main competition will take place between them.
The other expression of the new tendency to enlargement of parties is establishing of the election bloc “Hello, Yerevan” which includes several small parties. Probably this tendency was a reason for rejection participation in the coming elections by a small pro-Western opposition party Free Democrats. Perhaps the elections to the Council of Elders will make the tendency even stronger.
