PEOPLE VOTE AGAINST THE PAST

The February 19 presidential elections came to prove that even though the irrational worship of the past is still quite strong and viable in our reality, the major part of society managed to overcome the century-old disease after Armenia’s gaining independence.
It is evidenced by the fact that some individuals’ regular attempt of raffling the well-known soft spot of the people produced very modest results this time.
Unlike 1998, when more than 40 percent of the Armenian electors voted in favor of an activist embodying Armenia’s Soviet past, now only 21.05 percent of the 1 million 670 thousand voters participating in the elections gave preference to ex-President L. Ter-Petrosyan, an activist embodying the 1990s. It turns out that the number of the voters guided by the logic “yesterday was better than today” has reduced twice. This is an evidence of the undeniable fact that belief in future has strengthened.
Thus, on February 19, the overwhelming majority of our voters refused the irrational worship of the past and tried to search for the answers to all the questions in their present situation which is so overloaded with problems.
And in this respect, the given majority, that is, the citizens making up around 80 percent of the population and not suffering from nostalgia for the past became faced with the second dilemma, i.e. the conundrum of making a choice among several candidates refusing the past. In the list of such candidates, Prime Minister and RPA Chairman Serge Sargsyan, “Rule of Law” leader Arthur Baghdasaryan and ARFD candidate Vahan Hovhannisyan were in the foreground during the whole campaign. The rest, as expected, found themselves in the role of simple extras at the end.
As regards the second plane of the competition, at this point our voters were faced not simply with two, but rather, with several options simultaneously. A question arises as to why in this case their majority preferred the incumbent Prime Minister seemingly symbolizing the present rather than the future.
We believe the reason is that during the past years our voters not only became realistic and cautious in terms of their attitude towards the past, but also strengthened the aspiration of securing the predictability of their future. In this regards, the candidacy of “Rule of Law” leader Arthur Baghdasaryan was undoubtedly more “futuristic” from the point of view of both his young age and the abundance of promises than the personality of the incumbent Prime Minister. In the eyes of the voters, the latter symbolized the unity of the words and deeds of a leader unconditionally keeping his promise.
Therefore, on February 19 more than half of the Armenian voters preferred solely the predictable future, favoring the candidacy of the incumbent Prime Minister. Here are the crucial conditions securing such future: guaranteeing the evolutionary character of the reforms, ruling out political instability, securing the succession of policy by making a transition from the past to future etc.
By their vote, the majority of the Armenian voters definitely said “no” to the attempts of exacerbating Armenia’s internal political situation to the maximum possible extent and provoking possible excesses. Preferring the predictable and smooth path of continuing the reforms in conditions of stability, the given majority freely expressed their will on February 19, and their political decision is final and not subject to appeal.
The presidential elections finally blocked the ways and chances of returning the past and created all the real opportunities for making our people’s future predictable and devoid of instability. All those who have profoundly perceived the lessons of such complex and two-level elections held on February 19 will have their positive role in Armenia’s political domain.
It is also natural that in conditions of such ratio of forces, those figures who, relying on the 20 percent of our voters choosing the past, attempt to cling to our statehood’s future-oriented train and slow down its paces, are inevitably doomed to failure.
ARMEN TSATOURYAN

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