ANYWAY, WHICH THE REASON IS WHY THE REPUBLICAN AND THE BHK PARTIES FIGHT
HAKOB BADALYAN

LRAGIR.AM
11:36:10 – 19/05/2009

The relations between the Republican and the Bargavach Hayastan
(Prosperous Armenia, BHK) parties became one of the central topics
of the electoral campaign of the Yerevan Mayor election. Almost
everyone wants to understand, if the fights between the activists of
the Republican and the BHK have an imitative character or they are
natural. For example, Aharon Adibekyan thinks that the Republican and
the BHK parties are fighting seriously because they have to divide
the Yerevan posts.

Somebody else thinks that the Republican and the BHK parties are
engaged in imitative fights in order to persuade the public that the
BHK is opposition for the Republican Party, so the BHK will seize votes
from the opposition, from the Armenian National Congress. Those of
this opinion reason it by the presumption that in the end the BHK and
the Republican will form a coalition in Yerevan too and will continue
their peaceful partnership.

These are the two main opinions around of which there are numerous
other opinions. The situation is interesting because all the opinions
are reasoned and preconditioned. In other words, the Republican and
the BHK conflict has natural grounds and, at the same time, it has
an imitative nature too, not from the point that it is organized but
from the point that it is expedient.

The point is that in this way, the election gains a motivation for both
of the Republican and the BHK parties. Of course, this motivation
already exists by the opposition, the struggle against which is
enough to team the Republican and the BHK parties up and to unite them
against one "enemy" in the electoral process. And, this means that the
Republican and the BHK parties, which "make" the elections in Armenia,
may grow dull because of idleness and may not be able to be in a good
state on the day of the election. Consequently, they do not have to
wait for the oppositional aggression and they have to create some
internal hearths of aggression, with which probably the two parties
are busy now: they are training before the day of the election.

But, this training is not just exercise but a competition as
well. After all, after each election the government divides the
"booty". This division is not made on the principle of beautiful
eyes. In order to get much you need to have a greater contribution in
the victory against the public. The Republican and the BHK parties
today are fighting to have much contribution in the victory. But,
there is a nuance. The Republican Party is not trying to increase its
contribution but not to let the BHK have more contribution than usual
in order not to let the present quota of the division of the booty
be confused. In other words, the Republican tries to do everything
possible not to let the BHK contribution be more than during the
last state elections, and if it is possible even to decrease it,
so they will be able to give less to the BHK now than at the last
presidential elections.

Although, this fact does not mean that the BHK becomes a force,
which would not like electoral breaches to take place. Probably,
the opposite: while combating with the Republican Party, the BHK does
not strive for free and fair elections, but it wants the Republican
to rig its votes more that those of the HAK, because in this case
the Republican will be in debt with the BHK. In other words, the
BHK needs the votes not for a legal government, but for "selling"
them to the illegal government. In this question, the BHK has a real
and sincere clash of interests with the Republican Party.