Susanna Petrosian, Yerevan, exclusively for VK
On March 17, in the Sports and Concert Complex named after Karen Demirchyan, the extraordinary VI Congress of the ruling coalition party "Prosperous Armenia" (PPA) was held, at which the party election program, designed for five years, was approved. The congress was large-scale: it was attended by about 7000 delegates. In its scale, the Congress looked more like the opening ceremony of some big sports contest than a political event. Perhaps this had to do with another image of the party leader, the famous oligarch Gagik Tsarukian, precisely the fact that he heads the National Olympic Committee of Armenia. The congress was held under the slogan “A powerful state and a developing economy."
At the Congress, from the beginning to the end, President Serzh Sargsyan was present, as well as representatives of parliamentary parties: the ruling Republican Party of Armenia (RPA), the "Rule of Law" coalition, the opposition "Heritage" and the Armenian Revolutionary Federation "Dashnaktsutiun". The participation of foreign guests was also impressive - the delegations of the Russian and Ukrainian ruling parties, respectively, "United Russia" and "The Party of Regions." The head of the Russian delegation, State Duma Deputy Speaker Sergei Neverov, read the greeting address of head of the party Boris Gryzlov, who wished the PPA success in the forthcoming parliamentary elections. On behalf of the Ukrainian delegation, Vadim Kolesnichenko welcomed the Congress in the Armenian language, stating that the PPA is working for the welfare of the Armenian people. A charge d'Affaires of China in Armenia delivered a message from the leader of the Communist Party of China. There was also a Croatian delegation led by the former President of this country, Stjepan Mesic.
As a political show, the PPA Congress can be regarded as successful. But the Congress deserves positive evaluation also for its content - the speeches of the delegates who introduced the most important agenda included in the electoral program, according to different blocs, demonstrated skillfulness, relevance and professionalism. The focus of attention was, of course, the speech of the PPA chairman, the head of the parliamentary faction of the same name and one of the biggest businessmen of the country, Gagik Tsarukian, who presented an objective and even somewhat critical picture of the situation prevailing in the social sphere and economy.
"We wonder why our people achieve success abroad, find work, get on their feet, create jobs, but in our country they cannot do that. There is only one answer - lack of an adequate environment. There are serious problems in the country, it is necessary to create conditions so that citizens able to work don't leave and are able to support their families. If we cannot solve the problem of job creation, we will be forced to fight against poverty and record high levels of emigration," Tsarukyan said. According to him, in this situation the state must provide tax and other benefits to the lower and middle-classes: "The economic crisis has affected our country, like all other countries. Almost in all countries governments give a hand to their businesses, especially small and medium-scale entrepreneurs, they found various mechanisms to alleviate their situation. Does an Armenian businessman feel such assistance?"
The topic of conducting fair and honest elections went like a "red thread" through the presentations of most of the speakers. Minister of Urban Development Vardan Vardanyan assured that the PPA would do its best to prevent bad practice pre-election bribes during the election. A deputy and head of the permanent Parliamentary Commission for European integration, Naira Zograbyan, said that the PPA is responsible before the people for conducting the elections: "The election results should be acceptable to the public. Otherwise, any statement, even made from the highest platform, using the most Europeanized lexicon, will only be an imitation, a quasi-European veil." Another representative of the PPA, Elinar Vartania,n reminded that the chain of violations of legal order begins precisely with electoral fraud.
In general, despite its pomposity, the PPA Congress was not vacuous. However, although from the platform there were criticisms and even essentially opposition speeches, we should not forget that the PPA is part of the government and bears some responsibility for the disappointing socio-economic situation in the country and the extremely complicated moral and psychological atmosphere. Criticism of the existing tax system, which prevents the development of small and medium-scale enterprises, the analysis of the situation in the legal field, public comments on the lack of confidence in the courts and other statements certainly were relevant and objective, but could the PPA not have dealt with these problems in the last five years?
The leader of the PPA in his speech said that the Armenian economy needs investment and foreign capital, which will allow the creation of new jobs. But at the same time Tsarukyan invests in Bulgaria, Croatia and Belarus. In addition, if we consider the activities of the PPA in the context of the visible "tip of the iceberg", then the figure of the newly-accepted PPA member, the former Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian, becomes very problematic. Some politicians explain Oskanian's entry to the PPA by his desire to be again in public policy and use his experience. But society has not forgotten Oskanian’s behavior on March 1, 2008, and his statements that the participants of that demonstration were armed. The negative attitude to Vartan Oskanian as a person in attendance to Robert Kocharian, who in the public mind is the main culprit for the massacre four years ago, is a real problem for the PPA, impossible to dismiss and disown.
Despite some inconsistencies, in general the Congress demonstrated the clear intention of the PPA to guarantee fair elections. Today, the position of the PPA, which has enormous human, information, and to some extent, financial resources, can play a crucial role in ensuring considerably normal elections. The firmness of the PPA and the opposition’s consistency in regards to this question will outweigh the position of the ruling RPA, which, despite all the assurances of readiness to conduct fair elections, has not expressed its consent to abolish the first-past-the-post electoral system, which is the main source of fraud and violations in the elections. The PPA also flatly refused to partly abolish the system and reduce the number of single-member districts.