Susanna Petrosyan, Yerevan. Exclusively for Vestnik Kavkaza.
The nomination of candidates by majority and proportional electoral systems is now completed. Eight parties and one bloc - the Armenian National Congress (ANC) – will take part in elections to the National Assembly (NA) of Armenia on May 6.
The procedure for drawing up proportional lists provoked lengthy discussions full of discontent, mutual accusations and even conflicts within political parties. The small parliamentary opposition party "Heritage", headed by former Foreign Minister Raffi Hovhannisyan, found itself in a difficult situation. Preparation of the proportional list resulted in open conflict within the party. The reason for this was the formation of a single list with another opposition party, the "Free Democrats".
Created last summer, the “Free Democrats” reported as the liberal-democratic, pro-Western or rather pro-American party. The core of its leadership includes several political figures who left the Armenian National Congress over disagreements with the its policies. Some of them, when still ANC members, accused the extra-parliamentary opposition and its leader Levon Ter-Petroyasn of excessive Russophilia.
Talks about the possibility of creating a pre-election alliance of the two pro-Western parties - "Heritage" and the “Free Democrats” - began last summer. Realization of this idea became apparent as the elections approached. In early March, Ararat Zurabyan from the “Free Democrats” expressed confidence that both parties would participate in the election on a single proportional list and only need to resolve a technical issue. At the pre-election conventions, both parties voiced readiness to cooperate.
The issue was resolved at a meeting of "Heritage" on March 18, when the list of candidates in single-member districts and the list of candidates under the proportional system was approved. The decision to participate in the election with the single proportional list was made on the basis of the agreement reached during negotiations with the “Free Democrats”. In addition, the parties apparently proceeded from the usefulness of a single list, rather than the formation of a bloc. The fact is that, by law, to enter parliament a bloc must overcome the 7 percent barrier, whereas a party has only a 5-percent barrier. The majority electoral lists include eight candidates from both parties, while the proportional one has 73. Among the top 12 places on the list both "Heritage" and the “Free Democrats” have four places, and another four are given to non-partisans, representatives of the "public sector".
The top five of the proportional list include Raffi Hovannisian, Khachatur Kokobelyan, Zarui Postanjian MP ("Heritage"), Alexander Arzoumanian (“Free Democrats”), ex-Minister for Foreign Affairs, Ruben Hakobyan ("Heritage") .
Meanwhile, the top ten did not include the people known for their consistent and principled struggle against violations of civil rights - Anahit Bakhshyan, Armen Martirosyan and Larisa Alaverdyan - who came 14th, 16th and 41st places on the list respectively .The first two were nominated candidates in single-member districts.
The very next day a third person in the party, the secretary of "Heritage" Karine Akopyan, announced that she wants to leave the party because of this proportional party list. "Every place has to be justified and explained, this is staff policy. I cannot imagine that the head of the parliamentary faction is in 16th place. I'm not against members of the public sector, but let them be well-known public figures," Akopyan said, convinced that the main strategy behind the list was to give priority to the “Free Democrats”. According to some, one member of the faction, Larisa Alaverdyan, was also not happy with the list. Representatives of “the Free Democrats” refrained from making any comment on these statements. In the words of Raffi Hovhannisyan, the proportional list was developed as a result of lengthy discussions, and should be viewed as a whole and not in parts: "The list was put to a general vote, and, therefore, it is a list of collective responsibility."
Meanwhile, some people on the list confuse the experts. Primarily, this refers to the 6th place in the list, the non-affiliated chairman of the International Centre for Human Development, Tevan Pogosyan. Some observers were surprised by the inclusion of a figure standing so close to the presidential palace as Tevan Poghosyan in the proportional list of the opposition party. According to the political observer "Zham.am" Artak Hakobyan, Tevan Poghosyan is well known for actively assisting the authorities in the Armenian-Turkish process, whereas the "Heritage" party advocated the opposite position: "How could it happen that after all this, Tevan Poghosyan, being an adherent of the Armenian-Turkish "football diplomacy" , came sixth in the proportional list of the opposition party? In addition, Tevan Poghosyan is now considered a representative of the public sector. However, his views are unknown to the general public."
Some observers advise Raffi Hovannisian not to turn "Heritage" into an appendage of the “Free Democrats”. Of course, today it is difficult to judge how many votes will this single list will get and what the results in the eight districts will be. But it is obvious that the creation of this new united electoral bloc was another attempt at artificially redrawing the political field of Armenia and the establishment of pre-election pro-Western opposition forces, as opposed to the much more independent and uncontrollable ANC. Will this attempt bring any success against the backdrop of the fact that the democratic West did nothing after the disclosure of murders in the center of Yerevan during the events of March 1st 2008? Not all issues are resolved within the political elite.
With specific regard to "Heritage", this small opposition party with high authority and its niche in political field, has almost lost its face as a result of the latest events.
