The polls conducted by various organizations have controversial results. On one hand it turns out that 85% of the people are sure that the government is corrupt and on the other hand 40% is going to vote for either the RPA or Prosperous Armenia. Of course the government doesn’t agree with the first results and the opposition claims that the second results are fake.
In fact it’s not excluded that both of the polls are true. This means that our society has serious problems with logical thinking. But this version in not discussed because it’s accepted to think that our society is very civilized and educated. The society is not guilty and it’s only the fault of the government and the political parties. Perhaps it is so. We wouldn’t like to argue about this. Thus a few days ago several residents of an elite building in the center of Yerevan were saying that they’d vote for the party that renews the yard of the building. Everybody knows that it’s the fault of the government that the yards are not kept up but people say that they’d still vote even for the government if it restores the yards before elections. Of course this is an expression of a high level of civil mentality.
Have you ever noticed how the average driver is driving in Yerevan? They always curse the ones who violate the driving rules. So whenever they have the chance they violate the law. When stopped by the patrol he gets out of the car and starts to bargain. He tries to bribe the officer by inserting money in his pocket. No matter whether the officer accepts the bribe or not; the driver curses the police officer once he gets back into his car. That’s exactly what the average voter is doing to the parties. First the voter curses the government, but when the right occasion or opportunity presents itself, he starts to bargain with the parties. If the bargain works out, the voter still curses the party for the illegal deal, and if the bargain fails, he or she curses the parties for not doing what they wanted.
In general, the greater part of society votes for the opposition not because it trusts the opposition or thinks they are better, but just to get rid of the incumbent. The ones who don’t like the opposition either vote for the government or don’t vote at all. The average Armenian voter has one peculiarity. He or she trusts neither the government nor the opposition. Moreover, there are all the necessary grounds to not trust the government. How can people believe in the government, which is saying they are going to reduce corruption if they have been in government for nine years but the corruption level has risen (all the surveys prove that without exception)? But the average voter doesn’t trust oppositional parties either. They don’t have a positive opinion about the inspiring speeches of the oppositionists and think that now the opposition wants to steal votes from voters.
The coming elections will be a step forward compared to previous ones. It seems like the government has made its primary decision. This means that the government shouldn’t follow the law but follow what it thinks is right or true. The laws must only be formal to show the international community that we have good legislation. This is proven by the fact that the government sticks its campaign posters and banners on administrative buildings while the law bans doing that.