DEATH OR MANDATE
Hayk Aramyan

Story from Lragir.am News:

Published: 11:00:38 – 16/05/2012

On these days, the alleged opposition – Congress, ARFD and Heritage –
have been trying to justify their participation in the “elections” and
accepting of the mandates. Armen Rustamyan, member of the ARF Supreme
Body, says that everything is not that bad and that the opposition
received a total of 45% of votes, including also Prosperous Armenia.

Soon, we will see what these 45% will be worth. As to the opposition
forces, they will say the elections were fraudulent and make some
effort to dispute the results at the Constitutional Court just in
order to ensure the appearance but they will take the mandates anyway
to engage in “legislative activities” in the parliament.

The point is that the oppositional forces have not received even the
minimum of votes to pass to parliament. They know that too.

Apparently, if really free and fair elections were held, they would
not receive the necessary number of votes either. So, they entered
into a deal with the authorities to rule out any post-election riot
in exchange for several mandates. In other words, the authorities
rigged the election results even regarding the opposition votes.

Could the opposition simply have ignored the “elections” or run and
laid down the mandates? In theory, they could. But the fact is that
they entered into a deal with the government. How can they lay down
the mandates if the authorities have agreed to boost their percentage?

Perhaps, they understood that the money the government paid to voters
was of more value than the political decades of empty talks. They
also understood that this was the last “election” of the old system
in the result of which they will ensure their personal matters for
the next 5 years.

On the other hand, it is necessary to welcome the decision of the
opposition. After complacency with a state crime and entering the
parliament formed in the result of it, they did not leave any illusions
in the Armenian people.

In reality, the question in the title should be reworded to “mandate
and death”. The only result of the past “election” for the Armenian
parliament will be the death of the vicious political system
established since Armenia’s independence.