ARMENIAN LOCAL ELECTIONS REMAIN INTRA-GOVERNMENT CONTESTS AMID OPPOSITION APATHY
By Emil Danielyan

Eurasia Daily Monitor, DC
Jamestown Foundation
June 2 2005

Thursday, June 2, 2005

Over the past 15 years Armenians have grown accustomed to a great
variety of political groups vying for power in their country. They
must therefore be amazed by the glaring lack of choice in unfolding
local elections across Armenia, races that are largely contested
by candidates representing rival government factions or competing
business clans.

The Armenian opposition is again showing little interest in local
governments, adding to popular indifference to the polls. Opposition
leaders say that they want to concentrate their efforts on removing
President Robert Kocharian and that free elections are impossible
without regime change in Yerevan.

Elections in more than two-thirds of some 930 Armenian towns, villages,
as well as Yerevan districts are scheduled for this October. Most other
hamaynkner, or local communities, will elect their chief executives
and “councils of aldermen” in the course of this year. Some of them
have already done so in recent weeks.

Virtually none of those polls featured a major opposition candidate.
They were mostly two-horse races pitting candidates affiliated with
or endorsed by Prime Minister Andranik Markarian’s Republican Party
of Armenia (HHK) against contenders backed by other pro-government
forces or wealthy individuals. One election, held in the northern town
of Alaverdi on May 8, was contested by two candidates representing
different HHK factions. The defeated candidate accused the winner,
Alaverdi’s incumbent mayor, of massive vote rigging.

Nonetheless, the Armenian authorities did manage to display unity
in some cases. Nobody, for example, dared challenge Markarian’s
27-year-old son Taron, who ran unopposed in Yerevan’s northern
Avan district. He was “elected” Avan prefect with 97% of the vote
on May 22, becoming the youngest head of a local government body
in the country. In fact, Taron Markarian told the 168 Zham weekly,
he would have an even higher government position were his father not
prime minister.

The election in Yerevan’s nearby Nork-Marash district, scheduled for
June 5, will also feature one candidate: its incumbent prefect. A local
businessman pulled out of the race at the last minute after failing
(for unknown reasons) to win the endorsement of the People’s Party
of Armenia (HZhK), one of the most popular opposition groups.

“We are not participating in those elections because we have no
candidates,” HZhK leader Stepan Demirchian said on May 11 without
elaborating. He said his party would instead field candidates for
the October polls.

Another prominent opposition leader, Aram Sarkisian, admitted that
his Republic party would not do even that, as party leaders believe
Armenian local elections cannot be democratic as long as Kocharian
is in power.

Haykakan Zhamanak, a daily staunchly opposed to Kocharian, deplored
this line of reasoning in a May 19 editorial. The paper wrote that
by letting the ruling regime maintain its grip on local communities
the opposition only lessens its chances of toppling the central
government. “Opposition parties now have trouble meeting people in the
regions, and one of the reasons for this is that government stooges
who become community prefects or village chiefs are duly following
government instructions,” it argued.

Nonetheless, money and control of electoral commissions do appear
to be the main factor deciding the outcome of those ballots. Most
Yerevan district chiefs and town mayors are wealthy, government-linked
persons who have extensive business interests in their respective
communities. For them, vote buying is the easiest way to get apathetic
and impoverished voters to the polling stations. The central
government usually turns a blind eye to their questionable activities
because the local bosses play an important role in manipulating
presidential and parliamentary elections.

The Armenian Revolutionary Federation, another party represented
in Kocharian’s cabinet, has repeatedly expressed concern about the
growing influence of what it calls “apolitical elements.” One of its
leaders, Armen Rustamian, warned last February that failure to rein
them in and ensure the freedom and fairness of the October elections
could result in bloodshed.

Armenians may have received a taste of things to come on May 29,
when a mayoral election in Hrazdan, a town 50 kilometers north of
Yerevan, was marred by violence and fraud allegations. According
to official results, its incumbent mayor, Aram Danielian, narrowly
defeated his main challenger, Artur Shaboyan, who is not affiliated
with any party. Shaboyan refused to concede defeat.

As voting there drew to a close, scores of masked police officers
reportedly attacked and indiscriminately beat up Shaboyan’s proxies
and supporters outside three polling stations. Eyewitnesses said
the special police units used electric-shock equipment. More than a
thousand people rallied in Hrazdan the next day to demand a recount
of ballots.

“A new fact has emerged,” another newspaper, Aravot, reported from the
scene. “You don’t have to be an oppositionist in order to be beaten and
electrocuted. All you need is to protest against vote falsifications.”

(Aravot, May 31; Haykakan Zhamanak, May 24, May 19; 168 Zham, May 19;
RFE/RL Armenia Report, May 11)