A noteworthy opinion was expressed after the community head elections in the Ajapnyak community of Yerevan: there was only 25% voters’ turnout, because during the previous elections people have already gotten used to election bribes and didn’t wish to participate in elections without bribes. In fact, it’s true. If the people have previously been paid for their votes why would they go to vote for free? Moreover, this model can also be applied in the 2007 elections. The pro-government parties will not give election bribes, the advocacy of oppositional forces will be nullified through strong protests. The turnout of voters will amount to a maximum of 25-30%. The rest, as they say, is all about techniques. You may buy a 400 AMD calculator and by calculating make the election results correspond to the criteria of the Council of Europe.
Also, the purely psychological adaptation of the population to election bribes is not a novelty. It’s been known long ago. There is a story like this. One rich person had a habit to go to the park every day, sit at the bank of the lagoon and rest. But the noisy kids around were always disturbing him. But he finally finds the solution. He calls the kids, pays them a dollar each and asks them to make noise around him every time he’d go to the park. He pays them four days and refuses to pay them the fifth day. The children, of course, disagree to make the regular noise around him and go play somewhere else. Thus, the rich man reached his goal. That’s exactly how our authorities will reach their goal if the population refuses to go to elections without being bribed. History proves that the government never has problems in such situations (this was proven through the Constitutional Referendum and the elections of the community head in Ajapnyak). However, they don’t have problems only within the country. They have serious problems in the international political arena because it’s impossible to resist the foreign pressure if there is no trust from people in your country. The President of Georgia Sahakashvili may allow himself to resist the Russian pressure because a considerable part of the population supports his policy. Who’s going to encourage the Armenian government? The 75%, who didn’t participate in elections, or perhaps the 25% participants? But they will support the government only when somebody transports them by mini buses to the support venue for free. There is no other way. If they were elected through that mechanism they will support through the same mechanism.
Let’s bring just one example. Very strange things are happening regarding the Iran-Armenian gas pipeline. The Russians constantly announce that as agreed, the 40-kilometer segment of the pipeline should be sold to them. But the Armenian state officials deny that information persistently. The denial in general proves only one thing. That transaction is a very bad idea. But the Russians keep announcing such information. Karen Karapetyan also brings strange arguments on behalf of the transactions. He insists that it would be very expedient to give that part of the pipeline to “ArmRusGazArd”, because it’s not wise to have two offices, two directors and two different staffs. Interesting logic, isn’t it? Please imagine the director of the “Jermuk Group” offer to give him the “Bjni” mineral water company and bring reasons that there is no need to have two offices, two directors, two accountants, etc. And finally, we don’t need that many universities. Let’s just make them one.
There can only be one explanation for the scandal of the mentioned segment of the Iran-Armenian gas pipeline. The Russians are strongly pressuring the Armenian government, by trying to snatch that pipeline. And the Armenian government is resisting. But they don’t have any resources to openly resist. They don’t have resources because they came to power with support of Russia and not the Armenian people. During the elections they confirmed the opinion of Putin and Russian monitors instead of the Armenian people. And there is no need for ARF representatives to complain about the disrespectful attitude of Russians towards Armenians. That doesn’t mean anything. Our government perfectly realizes that if they become a little bit stricter to Russians and if they decide to organize a “slight color revolution” in Armenia, no one will protect them. No one! And that’s the reason why the future of the Iran-Armenia gas pipeline is not clear yet.
And only under such circumstances the government feels the support of the people, their trust and not by calculating the outcome of elections with their 400 AMD calculator.