Armenian paper lists large and medium-sized political parties

Armenian paper lists large and medium-sized political parties

Ayots Ashkar, Yerevan
3 Aug 05

Excerpt from report by Armenian newspaper Ayots Ashkar on 3 August

All political parties in Armenia have to submit their registration
papers to the appropriate State Register department no later than 8
August. We would like to remind you that to be registered, a party
must have at least 2,000 members and it should be represented in
every district of Armenia and every district branch should have at
least 100 members.

As the chief of the State Register Agency department Edik Margaryan
explained yesterday [2 August] that “at present only 20 out of 68
parties registered in Armenia have not yet submitted the required
documents”. There are over 400,000 party members [in the country].

The Law Governed Country Party has 42,759 members, National Unity
Party – 41,525, Armenian People’s Party – 28,244, Republican Party
of Armenia – 25,309, New Times Party – 21,000, Communist Party Of
Armenia – 18,594, National Self-Determination Party – 9,724, Ramkavar
– Azatakan Party of Armenia – 9,227, Armenian Pan-National Movement –
6,730, Anrapetutyun party – 5,600, Mighty Motherland – 4,525, Armenian
Liberal-Democratic Union – 5,514, United Labour Party – 4,650.

Armenian Revolutionary Federation Dashnaktiutyun and
National-Democratic Union were the most modest in this list of the
big parties, they only informed that the number of their members is
more than 2,000 and they have 100 party members in every district of
Armenia, that is to say, they meet their legal requirements.

Next come the medium-sized parties. The Grant Bagratyan’s Liberty
Party has 2m438 members, Armen Darbinyan’s Worthy Future party –
2,470, Constitutional Law Union – 3,541, Armenian Democratic Party –
2,764, Ovenes Ovanesyan’s Liberal-Progressive Party – 4,819, Armenian
Union of the Aryans – 2,354, Armenian United Communist Party – 3,289,
Democratic Motherland Party headed by Petros Makeyan – 4,647. Tigran
Karapetyan who is heading the People’s Party said that the number
of his party members meets the norms. [Passage omitted: The parties
that have not yet submitted their documents are mentioned. Then small
parties list is presented.]

As Margaryan said, the State Register Agency does not have means to
check the submitted information. This is not foreseen by the law:
“We do not have a right question the accuracy of the submitted
information and we did not check it. But the means of such checking
is not envisaged by the law,” Markaryan said.