Lragir, Armenia
Nov 30 2007

REFORMS ARE SLOWER THAN IMPROVEMENT OF ELECTION FRAUD

On November 30 Vahan Hovanisyan, who was nominated for the
presidential election by the 11th supreme meeting of the ARF
Dashnaktsutyun stated in his speech that preceded his nomination that
through 9 years of collaboration with the government the ARF
Dashnaktsutyun has earned the image of a dependable partner and did
not renege on its principles. Vahan Hovanisyan listed all the
achievements that our country has had, and the ARF Dashnaktsutyun has
contributed to.

`First, since 1998 we have demanded a Constitutional reform, and it
was set as one of the goals of the president’s platform. Today we
have an amended Constitution, however, we reached our goal only in
2006. And despite the progress, many issues were not solved precisely
in the new Constitution. The proposal on regulating the activities of
the Security Council by a law, as well as a number of other proposals
were not adopted. As a result, the mechanisms which sustain balance
of powers are imperfect,’ Vahan Hovanisyan says.

The second achievement to which Dashnaktsutyun contributed is,
according to Vahan Hovanisyan, the reform of the Election Code,
advocated by the ARF Dashnaktsutyun for many years. `The purpose is
to rule out breaches, fraud, maintain transparency. Did we succeed?
Yes, to some extent but the situation is the same. Hence, reforms are
slower than the improvement of election fraud and use of new
devices,’ Vahan Hovanisyan says.

The next achievement, according to Vahan Hovanisyan, is the passage
of the law on dual nationality but he blames the government why it
has not been enforced yet. `Only one rule was put to use, which bars
the citizens of Armenia living and working or merely staying outside
Armenia from voting. I am not against this provision, it is a correct
provision. But it should be enforced from the moment of enforcement
of the law not separately. Otherwise, it appears that this
semi-hastiness is the reason why in the parliamentary election 2003
the ARF Dashnaktsutyun’s rating was highest in Russia, for instance,’
Vahan Hovanisyan says.

The next thing to which Vahan Hovanisyan refers to as the result of
the consistency of the ARF Dashnaktsutyun is battle against
corruption. According to him, many denied that it exists but thanks
to the consistency of the ARF Dashnaktsutyun the attitudes toward
this phenomenon in the society and in the government has started to
change. `Armenia became a member of GRECO, at last the
anti-corruption strategy was adopted, the anti-corruption council was
created. How did it happen? Inside the government, in other words,
the structure which should be the main object of control. Meanwhile,
we demanded the creation of an independent council, and a monitoring
group with incomplete, castrated powers could not mend the
situation,’ Vahan Hovanisyan says.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress