“It is a very objective political process, nothing new is happening from the perspective of political science,” Aram Karapetyan, the New Times Party leader, said in response to a question of www.aravot.am how he would assess the developments concerning the ANC, following the activities of the ANC for the past [...]
The position of the opposition on the issue of observers is not fully clear for me. Before elections, they and all of us seem to wish as many foreign observers as possible to come for the election, in order to prevent election fraud. After elections, a representative of the opposition, talking about observers that had come from different countries during a rally, shouted out “let them not come at all.” Let us make up our minds what is more important for us that the observers ensure the legality of the election or that they write a conclusion favorable for the opposition afterwards. I am under the impression that the first one is more realistic than the second one and the very proxies of the opposition reassert that the presence of foreigners in the polling stations plays a preventive role for the fraudsters representing the government. And it was pointless to expect a very strict, condemning report finding the election void – we have had much worse elections, on which the observers have written much better reports. Against the background of violence, gunshots, once even prolonging the election, as it went along, in all the previous elections, not accepting the results of the “peaceful fraud” would have been just unfair of the international community.
Different representatives of the Prosperous Armenia Party governing body stated earlier that they would convey the official opinion of the party on the results of the May 6 parliamentary election and would make it public after the final results of the election were published. On Sunday, the Central Election Commission [...]
Before the parliamentary election, the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA), the Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP), the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF), the Democratic Party of Armenia (DPA), the Armenian Communist Party (ACP) and the Rule of Law Party (RLP), had signed an application to the NSS. “Attaching importance to ruling out [...]
Participating in the election in a party alliance has many inconveniences. The Republic bureaucratic union of 1995 existed till the end of 1997, when the first president’s positions weakened and the Republican Party of Armenia took sides with the more powerful one in 1998, giving a classic example of rats’ deserting. In 1999, the Union bureaucratic alliance was decapitated during the events of October 27, after which many members of that alliance took sides with the more powerful one once again. The Justice opposition alliance of 2003 collapsed, not playing a serious role in the opposition camp – today, different members of that alliance, Stepan Demirchyan, Vazgen Manukyan, Viktor Dallakyan, Aram Gasparich, take, to put it mildly, different political positions. The problem is that positions are different, to begin with, and those unions are created for pragmatic reasons – to take over the power or to maintain the power – and a light wind, which doubts that it is an efficient tool to maintain or take over the power, is a deadly disease. That is the very reason, why the coalition between the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA), the Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP) and the Rule of Law Party (RLP) will be most probably maintained and the Armenian National Congress (ANC) party alliance will, at least, diminish. The former continues to be a source of power and, therefore, money and the ANC has stopped being a tool of changing power.
Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly Vanadzor Office reported in the framework of its monitoring mission during the National Assembly election on May 6 that oxidization of seals was used for double voting. Artur Sakunts, the manager of the office, said during a conversation with us that they had personally caught a woman [...]
“They don’t respond, because it is not the official opinion of the Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP). When all political forces are ready, consultations will be held with everyone, the Republican Party will make a final decision inside through its bodies and we will make public our official opinion and approaches,” [...]
The National Assembly election on May 6 was held in accordance with the international standards. Tigran Mukuchyan, the Central Electoral Commission (CEC) chairman, repeated this statement of the CIS observers today. In response to a question of www.aravot.am why he had rejected Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP) member Naira Zohrabyan’s proposal [...]
“It is a bit strange and those numbers don’t instill particular confidence and trust. In particular, 1 380 000 people participated in the 2007 election and if we consider the emigration rate, the number made public by the Central Electoral Commission (ECC) doesn’t seem trustworthy,” Naira Zohrabyan who is responsible [...]
Considering features of our reality, it is not so meaningful to declare a day of silence before the election. Firstly, I cannot imagine how it is possible to keep silent on social networks and whether anyone can supervise and block writing statuses and comments, let’s say, on Facebook. Secondly, the borderline between propaganda and “non-propaganda” is rather relative. Some people, for example, give interviews and state that they will not be engaged in the election campaign, but in reality, they do it quite much, having absolutely exact target. It is not necessary for propaganda to urge to vote for this or that one, one can just say, for example, that he doesn’t like this or that person’s appearance. No one will do any researches on every word or every sentence here.
On the other hand, I am happy that there will not be at least open, unconcealed propaganda in squares, newspapers and “officially allowed” broadcasting, because people are tired of the barrage of words – those who want to carry out their civil duty on Sunday will have to clearly be alone with their thoughts and if they are not on the internet, they will be free of that barrage of words. That is what international term “the day of silence” means.
www.aravot.am has gotten a letter from Anahit Janpoladyan’s email, in which she informs that today people from districts of Akhalkalaki, Bogdanovka, Akhaltsikhe and Tsalka in Javakhk, as well as a set of villages of Javakhk are being brought to Armenia by buses. “The leaders of the mentioned districts also come [...]
“I think that one shouldn’t see it as a serious thing. In such cases, one should immediately call law-enforcement agencies. We ourselves do relevant work,” Davit Harutyunyan, an RPA head of the state and legal issues committee of the National Assembly, said, in response to an observation of www.aravot.am [...]
According to candidate for MP Ruben Hayrapetyan, the pre-election period has been peaceful and normal. He doesn’t agree that pro-government candidates have prevented the work of opposition candidates in this period or have used violence, “Some candidates for MP have a task of self-assertion, they try to intrigue. The same [...]
Movses Aristakesyan, a representative of the ANC, is convinced that the Rule of Law Party candidates for proportional representation have left the list recently for a very simple reason – “panic.” “The junior partner in the coalition senses that it is betrayed by the senior partner, the Republican Party. It [...]
When one calls himself a “long-suffering people,” one means first of all that his people differs from the others. I.e. there are peoples on the face of the earth that haven’t suffered, haven’t endured privations and haven’t been deported in the course of their history. According to that logic, there are peoples, the houses of which haven’t been intruded by enemies, their
enemies haven’t killed unarmed people, haven’t raped women, haven’t burned and stolen their property. Has it happened only to Armenians? Is it our national feature? Probably, a slight difference is that not all went through that relatively recently, in the 20th century, and not all killers, burners and rapists so impertinently claim that they and their state haven’t committed any crime against Armenians, as the Turks do, and what is more, they call us, Armenians, the criminals.
Before the election, multifold civic initiatives have emerged to oversee the election. Such initiatives are The Election’s Mailman; the 2012 Parliamentary Election and Art and Culture projects. In the framework of the first one, 7 mailmen have been sent on a business trip to various regions of the Republic [...]
A working consultation presided by Vladimir Gasparyan, the Chief of Police of the Republic of Armenia, was convened today in regard to the upcoming National Assembly election. Vladimir Gasparyan, the Chief of Police of theRepublicofArmenia, said that they had been warned about inaccuracies in the lists and other things. He [...]
People stop me in the street and ask who they should vote for. That question confuses me – calling for something contradicts my nature and it is hard for me to give advice. Gurus, saviors and apostles are so many in our life that surely there is no need for me in that group. I do this way or another, but I understand that it is my personal choice and I don’t urge or call on either my wife, or my children, or people, with whom I work, not to mention others to copy me. Elections are a particular case of it – here I can also say what I will do, not urging anyone to do the same.
I will vote against everyone – i.e. I will make my ballot invalid in one way or another. In 2007 and 2008, I voted for the Heritage Party and Levon Ter-Petrossian respectively. I will not do the same at this stage continuing to highly appreciate the first president’s contribution to building our state and freeing Artsakh. Let me also add that I agree to 70% of the Armenian National Congress (ANC) criticism of the establishment. However, at this moment, the basis of the Congress criticism is the following thesis “you stand either by the people or by the establishment” and certainly, the ANC embodies the people. As Vladimir Nabokov would say “Bolsheviks (i.e. public speakers) and I have esthetic differences.”
During a conversation with www.aravot.am, Aghvan Hovsepyan, the Attorney General of the Republic of Armenia said in response to our observation that there was a lot of speculation about his personality that he interfered in electoral processes and supported his daughter-in-law’s father, “No one can link me to anything, I [...]
Today, during a forum organized by the Attorney General’s Office on the topic Toward Free and Fair Elections, head of the CEC Tigran Mukuchyan assured that there would really be a free and fair election, because there had been made substantial and fundamental amendments to the Electoral Code. During a [...]
