COALITION MEMORANDUM TO OPPOSITION`S BENEFIT, EXPERT SAYS

news.am
March 1 2011
Armenia

The memorandum was signed to the detriment of the Prosperous Armenia
Party (PAP). The Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) and the Armenian
Revolutionary Federation Dashnaktsutyun (ARF-D) partially suffered
as well. The Armenian National Congress (ANC) is the only force that
benefited from the memorandum, Armen Badalyan, an expert in political
and elections technologies, told journalists March 1. There is no
sense in speaking of the Heritage and Rule of Law parties because
such parties do not really exist.

The memorandum is actually to the PAP`s detriment, as the party will
have the same number of seats in the future Parliament. “That is,
the PAP voters do not have any inducement to vote for the party,”
Badalyan said. He pointed out that The PAP has not succeeded in getting
the electorate to view it as an alternative to the authorities or in
undertaking the mission of an opposition force.

The political essayist Anush Sedrakyan does not share the opinion that
the memorandum was signed to the PAP`s detriment. According to her,
the reason why the PAP cannot become an opposition force is it has
no control of economic levers.

Sedrakyan also said that, but for the authorities` support, the PAP
would not have succeeded in the latest elections. If the PAP refused
to sign the memorandum, it would lose that support. “So the PAP got
a great bonus by signing the memorandum,” Sedrakyan said.

From: A. Papazian