The National Assembly opposition, in particular the “Justice” alliance, makes announcements from time to time about forming temporary councils. This time, the “Justice” alliance has proposed to National Assembly president Arthur Baghdasaryan about forming a temporary council to conduct research on the electoral fraud during the 2003 parliamentary and presidential elections, as well as the constitutional amendments referendum this past November. It appears that the alliance members have nostalgia of the 2003 elections. But why did the opposition remember the 2003 elections all of a sudden? It turns out that the reason for this is the confession made by former head of the electoral commission at the 03/40 poll in the Oshakan village of the Aragatsotni Marz Spartak Yeghiazaryan. Spartak had confessed that he and the commission had faked the results of the presidential elections and added 60 more votes to Robert Kocharyan’s 12% votes. After his confession, the opposition became euphoric and decided to ask NA president Arthur Baghdasaryan to form a temporary council. But their euphoria didn’t last long-after Spartak Yeghizaryan denied what he had said, the opposition’s enthusiasm died.
During an interview yesterday, MP of the “Justice” faction of the NA Vartan Mkrtchyan was trying his best to convince us that forming the council is not done for a temporary period.
“The electoral fraud has always been in the center of our attention because this is one of the major issues for the people. There has been fraud during the elections, they do it now and it’s getting worse. Taking into consideration the fact that now we have such things as the confession of Spartak Yeghiazaryan, we are once again proposing to form a temporary council,” says V. Mkrtchyan.
It’s obvious that the majority of MPs at the National Assembly will reject the proposal once again, especially since it’s unclear as to how this council is going to reveal the electoral frauds and punish the ones responsible three years after the elections. Can they really consider the three-year old elections as invalid?
“If we really want to have fair elections, then we must form those temporary councils, which will conduct research and will do away with the doubts and uncertainties of electoral fraud once and for all. The ones responsible for the fraud will be punished,” said V. Mkrtchyan. In closing, Republican MP V. Mkrtchyan tried to encourage the majority of National Assembly MPs.
“Why are they afraid of forming temporary councils? After all, the authorities were the ones that announced that there has been electoral fraud during the elections. If they really consider the formation of a temporary council as absurd, then let them form it, then not participate in the “absurd” council meetings and leave it all up to the opposition,” he said.
Besides the coalitional parties, the oppositional parties are also against forming such temporary councils, including the “National Unity” party.
“We can talk about it here and there, but we won’t get anything out of it. It is impossible for them to consider the elections invalid because we are on the threshold of new elections. So, we shouldn’t be wasting time on this,” says vice-president of the “National Unity” party Alexan Karapetyan. According to him, each citizen of Armenia knows that there have been attacks, fraud during all the elections in the country. It’s no secret to anyone.
“If we reveal all that with help from the new temporary council, I don’t know what the effect will be. It would be different if that council were formed after the 2003 elections,” says A. Karapetyan.
And since, based on my impression, the opposition is taking this step mainly because it has nothing to do; I tried to find out from A. Karapetyan why the opposition is so passive? It turns out that the opposition is not passive. They simply express their opinions and make announcements about what’s going on in the country and the parliament. As for the “National Unity” party, it is currently getting ready for the 2007 parliamentary elections.
“Years of experience forced the opposition to review its strategy and take the right steps. There is only one way of changing power in this country: get ready for the elections. There is no alternative. That’s why our party is focusing on the upcoming elections. What to do, how to do it, even make some compromises with the authorities; just as long as the elections are fair. We all have to fight for the 2007 elections, as well as future elections. Power is in the hands of those who have control in Armenia and they are the ones organizing demonstrations close to being called terrorism. It is wrong to go against the authorities in that case,” said A. Karapetyan.