MP of the National Assembly Justice faction and head of the Constitutional Rights Union Hrant Khachatryan has made an epochal proposal.
After his unsuccessful try to become ombudsman, Hrant Khachatryan is now asking the Armenian authorities to appoint him as head of the Central Electoral Commission (CEC) of Armenia. He said this openly at the National Journalists’ Club on June 9.
“I will put down my deputy mandate as soon as the Armenian political parties agree with appointing me as head of the CEC. Everyone is probably thinking that it’s going to be an unsuccessful try once again. But I think that if all the political parties accept my offer and my initiative, then the current political system will improve and there will be hope for the next elections to be controlled by the political parties,” said head of the Constitutional Rights Union Hrant Khachatryan.
So, the oppositionist MP is once again going from door-to-door, asking the Armenian authorities to appoint him to some position. In fact, he did this during the ombudsman elections too. After Armen Harutyunyan was elected ombudsman upon the request of the authorities, H. Khachatryan asked the authorities to grant the position of deputy ombudsman to the opposition, in other words, him. However, nobody really paid attention to his proposal and it’s quite possible that this one will also be unapproved.
“I made my offer and I am waiting for a response,” said Hrant Khachatryan during an interview with “168 Hours”.
I asked him what kind of response he expects to get from the authorities, to which he replied:
“It would be good if all the political parties forming the CEC elected me as president in order to keep the legality of elections.”
The MP says that he is worried over the fact that he will be accused of asking the authorities for a position.
“I have made it to the highest level. I am not considering the other proposals and am doing this for my general interests,” said the oppositionist MP. Since Khachatryan kept on imagining himself as head of the CEC, “168 Hours” asked him just how he was going to maintain the legality during elections, especially since everyone in Armenia knows that there is fraud during the elections committed not by the CEC members, but rather the “shaved-heads”, community heads and poll committee members.
“I will do a better job of fighting against the fraud than I have until now,” said H. Khachatryan. He didn’t wish to say just how he was going to fight against it, claiming that he knew very well what a person is supposed to do when given a specific job. Basically, Khachatryan also hinted that he was ready to take on other tasks if he wasn’t appointed head of the CEC.
It seems as though the authorities and his oppositionist colleagues are not going against this. However, MP of the Justice faction and member of the Armenian Democratic Party (ADP) Grigor Harutyunyan told “168 Hours” during an interview:
“Isn’t it a shame to ask these authorities for something?”
When we told him that the one asking the authorities for a position was from the opposition, Mr. Harutyunyan said:
“Who said that he is an oppositionist? Check your sources and then say that. I wouldn’t say that he is an oppositionist. That’s not something an oppositionist would do,” said G. Harutyunyan.
Leader of the National Unity party Artashes Geghamyan feels sorry for the offer made by H. Khachatryan.
“He is worried about actually having free and fair elections in Armenia for the first time.”
“It is so important for Armenia to have free and fair elections, that it can even make an MP drop his mandate,” said Arshak Sadoyan.
Member of the pro-government Armenian Republican Party Armen Ashotyan said that he truly respects Hrant Khachatryan as a person, but:
“Although I respect him, I don’t think he will be able to fight against the fraud and fix all the mistakes in the system just by being elected as head of the CEC. Besides, I don’t think Armenia has the kind of political culture to have the authorities and the opposition work together and allow him to become head of the CEC,” said A. Ashotyan.
After hearing this desire/offer, I also asked current head of the CEC Garegin Azaryan for his opinion.
“I suggest that Hrant Khachatryan read the voting code of the Republic of Armenia and understand who becomes head of the CEC and how,” said Mr. Azaryan.