ELECTIONS OR REFORMS?
Two incompatible solutions
To find a peaceful way out of the country’s current situation, two different options are proposed.
If we immediately and unconditionally rule out the radical opposition’s persistent claims for political instabilities and revolutions, which might have an undermining impact on Armenia, it will become clear that the entire mosaic of the possible solutions can be grouped and divided into two parts.
First: Organizing parliamentary elections, thus enabling the radical opposition to be fully involved in political processes, after the streets protests following the 2008 presidential elections.
Second: Raising the quality and speeding up the paces of the reforms planned previously. This will help gradually overcome the internal polarization and mutual estrangement still existing in society.
The situation resulting from the 2008 presidential elections certainly has its objective and subjective reasons, and overcoming the former through organizing elections is impossible as it is related to a whole entangled string of problems existing in the country’s political and economic life. And the only way towards their solution is the implementation of consistent reforms. The issue whether or not to organize elections is, undoubtedly, of secondary importance in this context.
In theory, the new parliamentary elections open certain prospects for shifting the opposition from street to square and healing the political arena. However, the whole problem is that Ter-Petrosyan’s political team refused to participate in the parliamentary elections, and the votes obtained by the other political factions found their reflection in the Parliament, elected legitimately in May 2007.
So, is it worth organizing a “charity function” for the opposition and its leader, who received 20 percent of votes in the presidential elections, just in order to shift them to the National Assembly?
The answer to this question lies behind the sharp internal political confrontation following the presidential elections. Obviously, Ter-Petrosyan’s team used the presidential elections just as a means or tool for staging a scenario of a destabilized political situation. Otherwise, if Ter-Petrosyan had really intended to hold victory in the presidential elections, he would have participated in the process of distributing parliamentary mandates in 2007, gained a seat in the electoral commissions and only thereafter thought about higher ambitions.
Therefore, instead of doing an accurate calculation of the existing ratio of forces, the new parliamentary elections will mark the beginning of a new scenario leading to the destabilization of the country’s internal political situation.
The entangled string of the problems existing in the political and economic life of the republic is impossible to overcome within a period of 6 months or even 1 year. Whereas the new destabilization of the internal political situation may delay the solution of the existing problems for several decades. Therefore, the “charity” proposed by Ter-Petrosyan and his political team may become an evil deed for the whole country.
The accomplished and tested “electoral prescription” useful to “democratic systems” may lead to a more exacerbated form of the disease of distrust in the electoral institutions and, instead of moving the country forward, hamper its development. By the way, the same may happen during the next regular parliamentary elections if the upcoming reforms are slowed down or do not reach their goal.
The existing discrepancies between the issue of organizing new, fair and transparent elections (which, in theory, is the right solution) and the current situation may be overcome by way of implementing consistent reforms in the course of the upcoming 3 years, till the next regular parliamentary elections, and such reforms should create a new economic and political situation in the country. In such conditions, the major part of the objective reasons of the post-electoral political confrontation will be overcome. Society will be able to give a new meaning to what happened, and the political forces will manage to find solutions to and prescriptions for the new situation.
rganizing regular or extraordinary elections is not the issue here; the whole problem is how each one will use the 3-year interval between them.
- ARMEN TSATOURYAN
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ARMEN TSATOURYAN
- 1879 Death of Stepanos Nazaryan (public figure) in Moscow (Russia). He published the "Hyusisapail" (Aurora Borealis) monthly.
- 1904 The great battle of Semal (the Sassoon rebellion) took place under the leadership of General Andraneek. Hrair (Armenak Ghazarian) was killed in the fighting. He was born in 1864.
- 1920 Death of Vrtanes Papazyan (writer) in Yerevan. He was born in 1866.
- 1921 The "Self-government of Syunik" is re-organized by the Dashnaks, as the "Government of Mountainous Armenia".
- 1953 Completion of the first stage of construction of the Gyumush hydroelectric power station.
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