Things will certainly be heating up at the Armenian parliament during the upcoming session. The reason is the fact that the parliamentarian parties have serious contradictions in their approaches concerning the amendments to be made to the RA Electoral Code.
The former secretary of “Justice” alliance, which was elected in Vanadzor based on a minority proportion, Viktor Dallakyan, has recommended adopting a 100% minority elections system. Now all the parliamentary powers, except the Republican faction and “People’s Deputy” group (most of its members are republicans) agree with this recommendation. Concerning this proposed recommendation Viktor Dallakyan said in “Azg” newspaper that this was the only possible way to fight against corruption with the help of the law, but in spite of that, many politicians say that this is just a proposed gift to “Prosperous Armenia” party because Dallakyan wants to join it.
We understand why only the “Republican” party advocates this system. Currently most of the NA deputies elected on a majority basis are either republicans or members of the “People’s Deputy” group. As for National Unity and Justice factions, their members were elected exclusively on a minority basis. Head of “Republican” faction Galust Sahakyan thinks that the mentioned factions are interested in increasing the number of such places provided by minority basis. He advises parties to work better. “I think the other political parties should be able to work with citizens in a manner that will allow them to be elected in the parliament on majority basis too. Those who advocate the minority system just try to solve a technical problem because they don’t have candidates in the regions of Armenia. On the basis of the example of the existing parliament we may see that most of the places provided by majority basis are filled by republicans. This is the problem”, says G. Sahakyan.
As for those who advocate the minority system of elections say that fraudulence and electoral violations are mainly seen during elections on a majority basis and that this is the reason why they can’t win. According to ARF member Armen Rustamyan, during majority basis elections the level of “politicization” is reduced and elections bear personalized character. “Fraudulence and violations are done more during elections on majority basis”, says A. Rustamyan. Concerning this issue ARF deputy Staprtak Seiranyan says, “During elections on majority basis competition is not based on an ideological background and performance, but on how much money the parties may spend. If you want to play a better role in politics and if you say that the MPs should be responsible for what they do, that goal may be reached upon adopting a system of majority elections. There are over 80 parties in Armenia. Are there any politicians that don’t like either of those parties and may be nominated on majority basis simply by taking their own initiative?” Secretary of “Justice” alliance, Grigor Harutyunyan says that adopting a system of elections on minority basis will not let criminals enter the parliament any more. According to Mr. Harutyunyan, in this case parties will be more careful and will not include names of such people in their lists because in that case parties will be responsible for those people. G. Sahakyan advocates the system of elections on majority basis and says, “In case of adopting a system of elections on minority basis the parliament will be represented only by people from Yerevan, and Marzes will be alienated from that process. As for people, they want to have such MPs that may be in contact with them. This is what people want. From the political view we think that our approach corresponds to the demand of the current situation”, says head of “Republican” faction. The Republican party advocates the system of 56 majority – 75 minority basis elections. According to Galust Sahakyan, the political powers have come to an agreement and their party agreed with the system of 41 majority – 90 minority basis elections. The head of the Republican faction says that if the political powers don’t follow their agreement and advocate 100% minority basis election system, during the coming discussions of amendments to the Electoral Code they will come up with a recommendation to go back to the 56/75 system. “If the principles are changed and there are no comments, we will go back to our principles”, promised the head of Republican faction.
Based on the information from the ARF and ULP, we may assume that Galust Sahakyan shouldn’t worry because the political powers are going to make compromises. ARF member Spartak Seiranyan says that even though they advocate fully minority basis election system, they have made a recommendation for the EO, according to which they recommend 90 minority – 41 majority places. “We will express our opinions concerning adopting a system of elections on minority basis as soon as we figure out why they are doing this now. As for me, I think that in a time of proportions of powers in the parliament, it is impossible to adopt a system of 100% minority basis elections”, said Mr. Seiranyan and added, “I think the purpose of this recommendation is to make the other party return to the 75/56. Accordingly, first of all we should understand what they want”.
In fact, if in the future only the NU, “Rule of Law” parties and the “Justice” alliance advocate the full system of minority basis elections, nothing may change. However, if the ARF and ULP also join, the situation may change rapidly. In spite of that, on the basis of the announcement of the president’s press-secretary saying that the president does not advocate the system of fully minority basis elections we may assume that the last two pro-government political parties will not do such a thing. According to V. Soghomonyan, there are two reasons for that. The first reason is the fact that the governmental parties have agreed to a proportion of places as 90/41. Accordingly the president is against violating the reached agreement. The second reason is the fact that Robert Kocharyan thinks that our political field is not formed yet and is still in its phase of formation. “He thinks that it is not right to alienate citizens from their MPs, which may be a result of minority basis elections in the existing situation of unformed political institutions. This number of elected deputies is provided in order to enable people to keep contact with the MPs elected on majority basis in their precincts”.