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
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