It’s not excluded that the international organizations may revise their reports about the parliamentary elections of Armenia in the near future and slightly lower the positive marks given to the elections. But to me, honestly, these evaluations aren’t very interesting. And in general the impression is that the evaluations of the international observers get gradually enhanced among us. If the marks are positive, the government makes much noise about those; if they are negative, the opposition does likewise. In fact, it’s more important to know how our society evaluated the recent election. The answer is definitely the following – “the elections were not free and fair.” It’s another thing to discuss who’s guilty. But the government would do better to think about the fact that the word “election” makes people grin. The government should have been concerned that the people didn’t vote for them but instead they are praising themselves for the fact that the people didn’t vote for the opposition. In general the majority of people didn’t even participate in the elections. Now let’s speak about political responsibility. These days this is the most popular topic. The political field is waiting to see whether the RPA will offer positions to other parties or will direct the government on its own. And once again they are circulating the myth that the RPA doesn’t want to carry the full responsibility for the executive branch in Armenia. What political responsibility are we speaking about? There is no such thing in Armenia and there will never be. Such a category exists in countries where the party presents a clear political agenda and if the plans fail once, the party doesn’t get elected again. Now the question is, what agenda has the RPA presented to us? The situation of the past 4-5 years is pretty evident to everybody – degradation of industry, increase of imports, the economy develops at the expense only of construction, life is becoming expensive at catastrophic speed, and people survive with the currency sent from abroad, which becomes more devalued day by day. And now the RPA promises to develop the country “at the same rate.” And they will. In several years they will announce that they did; it’s just us who don’t notice. And if somebody dares to say that the RPA hasn’t complied with the agenda, they will just show the sociological polls result and shut the slanderer’s mouth. They will even consider the latter a traitor of the nation.
In general there is no tradition of political responsibility in Armenia. For example, the President announced that in 2001 the phrase “Earthquake Zone” would not exist any more. It still continues. Or let’s say years ago the ARF wrote in its platform that Armenian agriculture must develop at the expense of importing “Holstein” cows. The portfolio of the agriculture minister has belonged to the ARF for years. These issues are not even discussed because the ARF doesn’t want to bear responsibility for the situation in Armenia. Thus in 4-5 years the same can be done by the RPA. They will announce that they are not responsible because, for example, the US attacked Iran or because of the Russian-Georgian border. Will the people not vote for the RPA after all? The important thing is the presidential elections, which are coming up. That’s why a certain coalition or alliance is needed to show that other forces also have chances.