Monday, November 26, 2018 Campaigning Starts For Armenian Snap Elections November 26, 2018 • Satenik Kaghzvantsian • Gayane Saribekian • Ruzanna Stepanian Armenia - Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian holds an election campaign meeting in Talin, November 26, 2018. Campaigning officially kicked off on Monday for Armenia’s snap parliamentary elections which Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and his political allies are expected to win by a landslide. Two alliances, including Pashinian’s My Step bloc, and nine political parties are vying for at least 101 seats in the Armenian parliament that will elect the next prime minister, the country’s most powerful official. The pre-term elections result from this spring’s mass protests that brought down Armenia’s longtime leader Serzh Sarkisian. They will be held on December 9 under a complicated system of proportional representation. Armenians will vote for not only parties and blocs as a whole but also their individual candidates running in a dozen nationwide constituencies. Under Armenian law, a political party needs to win at least 5 percent of the vote in order to be represented in the National Assembly. The vote threshold for blocs is set at 7 percent. Armenia - Mane Tandilian (C) and other election candidates of the Bright Armenia party campaign in Yerevan, November 26, 2018. Pashinian reiterated his pledges to ensure that the elections are the most democratic in Armenia’s history when he formally launched his election campaign in the northwestern Shirak province. “From now on, every time you decide to do a revolution you can do it with a single ballot,” he told supporters at a rally held in the town of Talin. “Why did the [spring] revolution take place? Because the people were denied a chance to form a government through elections, because your votes were stolen, because your choice was distorted through voter bribes, threats and various irregularities.” My Step is widely regarded as the election favorite. Most of its 183 election candidates are members of the Pashinian-led Civil Contract party. The bloc’s electoral list also includes non-partisan civic activists and other public figures allied to the popular premier. Civil Contract until recently made up the Yelk alliance together with two other parties, Republic and Bright Armenia. They decided to participate in the upcoming elections separately. Republic joined forces with another small pro-Western party earlier this month. Among other major election contenders are businessman Gagik Tsarukian’s Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK), the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun) and Sarkisian’s Republican Party of Armenia (HHK). The BHK finished second in all legislative elections held in the past decade. Tsarukian held no public gatherings on the first day of the election campaign, leaving it to two other senior party figures, Mikael Melkumian and Gevorg Petrosian, to present the BHK’s election manifesto to journalists. They said the tycoon will start campaigning for the elections on Tuesday in the central Kotayk province, his traditional stronghold. Both men declined to comment on their party’s electoral chances. “Until the people speak up [on election day] we have no right to distribute roles and determine our seats [in the new parliament,]” explained Petrosian. Armenia - The Republican Party's Armen Ashotian (L) and Arpine Hovannisian present the HHK's election manifesto at a news conference in Yerevan, November 26, 2018. The former ruling HHK, meanwhile, started its campaign with a news conference held in Yerevan by two of its leading members, Armen Ashotian and Arpine Hovannisian. Ashotian expressed confidence that his party will be represented in the new National Assembly despite what he described as an atmosphere of fear. He claimed that scores of HHK supporters are wary of expressing their political views for fear of losing their jobs and being bullied by Pashinian loyalists. “These people are numerous, and a big surprise will await Nikol Pashinian and his political tem late on December 9,” declared Ashotian. The HHK won the last parliamentary elections held in April 2017 amid opposition allegations of vote buying and voter intimidation. It is now trying to position itself as the sole truly opposition force capable of holding the new government in check. Former President Sarkisian’s name is absent from the HHK’s list of candidates which is topped by his longtime protégé, former Defense Minister Vigen Sargsian. Also noteworthy is a lack of wealthy businessmen among those candidates. They strongly contributed to the party’s past electoral successes. Campaigning in Shirak, Pashinian branded the HHK as a “criminal group that plundered the country for more than 20 years.” The upcoming elections, he said, must “formalize the political death of the Republican plunderers.” Armenia - Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian holds an election campaign rally in Artik, November 26, 2018. Pashinian was accused by the HHK of abusing his powers for electoral purposes after holding rallies during working visits to two other provinces last week. The HHK and other critics noted that the rallies were held before the official start of the campaign. The prime minister insisted that he did not break any Armenian laws. Pashinian announced late on Sunday that he is taking a ten-day vacation in order to concentrate on the parliamentary race. Armenia’s First Deputy Prime Minister Ararat Mirzoyan said afterwards that he will substitute for the premier until December 6. Ashotian criticized Pashinian’s unpaid leave, while calling it a response to the HHK criticism. He said Armenia is faced with grave economic and security challenges that require constant attention from the head of its government. “Dear Mr. Pashinian, why did you leave [the post of prime minister] and go [on vacation?] You were going to win anyway,” added the top Sarkisian ally. Republicans To Avoid ‘Big’ Campaign Rallies November 26, 2018 • Ruzanna Stepanian Armenia - Armen Ashotian, deputy chairman of the Republican Party of Armenia, speaks at a pre-election news conference in Yerevan, November 26, 2018. Former President Serzh Sarkisian’s Republican Party of Armenia (HHK) confirmed on Monday that it will not try to hold major rallies during its parliamentary election campaign. Armen Ashotian, the HHK’s deputy chairman, said it will be relying on media coverage and “knocking on people’s doors” instead. “We will be making use of all means of campaigning: the press, online media, house-to-house visits, events on the spot. There won’t be big rallies,” Ashotian told reporters at the start of campaigning for the December 9 parliamentary elections. “When we were in power we were holding those big rallies and they [Nikol Pashinian and his allies] were engaged in house-to-house visits,” he said. “The situation has changed. They are now in power and they are the ones who hold big rallies today, while we do house-to-house campaigning. And we are not ashamed of that.” Ashotian insisted that the former ruling party is not afraid of “contacts with the public.” It simply believes that they must not take the form of “meetings with the masses,” he said. “We must now stand alongside people and be much more attentive to the problems of concrete citizens, rather than use the collective presence of people for campaign videos,” added Ashotian, who served as education minister and held a senior parliamentary position during Sarkisian’s decade-long rule. Another senior HHK figure, Vahram Baghdasarian, similarly told RFE/RL’s Armenian service last week that the Republicans will put the emphasis on television appearances and media interviews in the parliamentary race. He denied that they fear hostile public reactions or poor attendance of their rallies. The HHK was for years accused by its political opponents and media of forcing public sector employees to attend his election campaign rallies led by Sarkisian. Observers believe that the HHK, is now too unpopular to make a strong showing in the December 9 elections. Some of them have predicted that it will fail to win at least 5 percent of the vote needed for having seats in the new parliament. Dashnaktsutyun Criticizes Armenian Government November 26, 2018 Armenia - Armen Rustamian, a leader of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, speaks at an election campaign rally in Yerevan, November 26, 2018. A leader of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun) launched stinging verbal attacks on the government as his party began its parliamentary election campaign on Monday. Armen Rustamian said Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s government may be trying to “replace old political and economic monopolies with new ones.” Rustamian also claimed that Pashinian is reluctant to limit sweeping prime-ministerial powers which he strongly criticized before coming to power in May. Pashinian voiced the criticism during Armenia’s controversial transition from a presidential to parliamentary system of government initiated by former President Serzh Sarkisian. He said that constitutional changes will give the prime minister too many powers at the expense of the ruling cabinet. “We have still not abandoned what they described as a ‘super-prime-ministerial system,’” Rustamian said at a campaign rally held by Dashnaktsutyun in downtown Yerevan. “We also don’t have guarantees that if [Pashinian and his team] try to reinforce their power that will not lead to the super-prime-ministerial system’s transformation into a super-presidential system.” Rustamian went on to accuse the new government of courting “oligarchs” that enjoyed privileged treatment by the Sarkisian administration. “It turns out that they are not oligarchs anymore,” he said. “It turns out that they are simply rich people, successful entrepreneurs. Probably because they have become allies [of the new government.]” Armenia - The Armenian Revolutionary Federation holds an election campaign rally in Yerevan, November 26, 2018. Rustamian further claimed that those tycoons retain their “dominant positions” in lucrative sectors of the Armenian economy contrary to Pashinian’s assurances that all economic monopoliesin the country have been broken up. “It is claimed that there are no monopolies, probably because those monopolies are now showing their loyalty and are ready to serve the new authorities,” he said. Dashnaktsutyun was officially allied to Sarkisian during the last two years of his decade-long rule. A power-sharing agreement signed in 2016 gave it three ministerial posts in the former government. Dashnaktsutyun reached a similar deal with Pashinian after mass protests led by him forced Sarkisian to resign as prime minister in April. The de facto coalition collapsed in October, with Pashinian accusing Dashnaktsutyun and another partner, the Prosperous Armenia Party, of collaborating with Sarkisian’s Republican Party. Dashnaktsutyun holds seven seats in Armenia’s outgoing parliament. Analysts believe that its main objective in the December 9 snap elections is to win at least 5 percent of the vote needed for being represented in the new National Assembly. Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL Copyright (c) 2018 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc. 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. www.rferl.org