Susanna Petrosyan, Yerevan, exclusively for "Vestnik Kavkaza"
The elections to Yerevan's Council of Elders on May 5 promise a real political struggle and intrigue, in contrast to the presidential election which took place on February 18, where the outcome was known in advance. The central question is the monopoly of power of the ruling Republican Party of Armenia (RPA). The main objective of the Republican Party has become the reproduction of its power, and the task of opposing political forces is to eliminate this monopoly, which hinders progress in all spheres of the life of the country.
The monolithic nature of the power, which is based solely on the power of the president, offers its own philosophy founded on the mutual relations of the ruling elite. This fact, in turn, is due to the lack of an actual institution of elections in Armenia, which is replaced by a well-functioning machine falsifying election results at all levels. Officials of any rank elected as a result of such elections become hostages of the system and do not have any independence in making certain decisions, even at local government level. A power structure formed on such principles is completely deprived of initiative and is not accountable to the voters, which affects the efficiency of the administration at all levels.
In the framework of the established system, officials simply do not have a defined self. A striking product of this philosophy is the incumbent mayor, a board member of the Republican Party, Taron Margaryan. He solves many problems related to transport and other communications, but in general, as one of the links in the power chain, he remains only one of the buttons on a remote control in the hands of President Serzh Sargsyan. It is impossible to evaluate the level of work done by Margaryan or any other previous mayor, since they have never led an independent policy because of the current system.
The current system of election fraud in Armenia is aimed at ensuring the monopoly of the ruling Republican Party, while the power system established on these principles becomes an obstacle to any developments in the field of democracy, human rights, economics, economic freedom, etc.
The ruling party intends to retain the existing hierarchy on May 5, since any deviation, given the dissatisfaction of the population, could lead to serious consequences for the system of government. The proportional list of the Republican Party alone, which the local media has labelled as a list of "fathers and sons," indicates that the Republican Party is committed to preventing the destruction of its monopoly on power. The proportional list of the Republican Party is headed by the current mayor Margaryan and includes sons and in-laws of such pillars of the regime as an RPA deputy elected by the majority system, Ashot Aghababyan, nicknamed Burnash, a crime boss nicknamed Mher Tokhmakhsky, etc.
The opposition forces, such as the Armenian National Congress (ANC), "Prosperous Armenia" (PAP) and the ARFD, declare their intention to cease the monopoly on power of the Republican Party and cooperate in gaining control over the elections, just as they did in the parliamentary elections on the 6th of May last year. Moreover, there are calls for the formation of a single coalition after the elections to the Council of Elders. There are ideological differences between these parties, but they realize that will not be able to defeat the current regime separately.
"We need to cease the political monopoly. This is not an efficient way of government and progress can be achieved only through division of responsibilities and a system of counter-balances. The presence of more than half a million people in the country who are unhappy with the regime indicates that people want change. Today, municipal elections are our main means to eliminate political monopoly," ex-Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian, who is first on the proportional list, believes.
Formally, elections to the Council of the Elders are local, but given the number of unresolved problems in the country, the extreme dissatisfaction of the population and the existence of political forces that reflect the mood of the overwhelming majority of citizens, these elections have become almost equal to the parliamentary ones.
What is the balance of power on the eve of the election, and how consistent is the objective of the opposition with its actual potential?
Each opposition party has its representative in the electoral commissions. In addition, three leading opposition forces will have their representatives working at each polling station. "Prosperous Armenia" plans to install video cameras at all polling stations. It should be noted that the PAP has great financial, human and considerable information resources.
The financial and human resources of the ANC in comparison with the PAP are limited. This party has only one newspaper and one internet site. However, representatives of the ANC have been very active in the media.
The ARFD also has information resources, including "Yerkir Media". But the bulk of its electorate mainly lives in the provinces.
The opposition has lots of resources, although much less than the authorities. After all, the latter have the administrative resources, which are not accessible to the opposition. It is possible that the government will even use criminal resources.
The main task of the opposition is not to let the ruling party gain more than 40% of the votes. With a well-organized campaign and coordinated cooperation in monitoring the elections, the opposition forces even have the opportunity to advance their own candidate for the mayor of the capital.
