After the presidential elections of February 19 during March-April months local government elections were held in several cities of Armenia and in the coming future local government elections will be held in four communities of Yerevan.
No opposition representative applied to run in the local government race. The opposition doesn’t have any candidates running in the local government elections to be held on May 18 in Nor Nork, Davtashen, Malatia-Sebastia, Davtashen and Avan communities. As a result the elections will be held with a single candidate. The estimation of some of the oppositionists, who are saying that if they run in the local government race they will indirectly legitimize the incumbent government, some of the political scientists find as justification of their inaction. Based on this circumstance, there is a great chance that the opposition would win the local government race taking into account the pressure of the PACE on the Armenian government. Therefore, it is surprising why the opposition decided not to run. Finally, they could have run the race to show to the public that they are not inactive and are still publicly active to encourage their supporters. It could have been productive for them.
The director of the Union of Political Scientists Hmayak Hovhannisyan agrees with this opinion, however he thinks that it would be for the opposition to run not in the local government but national elections. For example, he offers to run in the NA race because he thinks that only then will it be possible to overcome the political crisis. He signifies the election of the mayor of Yerevan even more than the local government elections, which according to him may become a stage for the resolution of the crisis. As of the community head elections then Hovhannisyan thinks that the participation of the opposition could indirectly legitimize the newly elected President on part of the opposition. However he thinks that during this period the opposition could be able to attain certain levers to locally solve certain problems for them.
“As much as I know the opposition is going to nominate its candidates in certain communities. It is obvious that the opposition will nominate those activists, who are being repressed by the government at present. By doing that they will show that their arrested supporters are political detainees. For example in the upcoming months elections will be held in Charentsavan and Sasun Michaelyan’s nomination totally fits in the strategy I mentioned,” said Hovhannisyan. As of the elections of the four communities of Yerevan, the chance of running of which the opposition lost, Hovhannisyan thinks that the opposition is currently using all its resources on the liberation of political prisoners. “The whole potential is invested in that. The opposition doesn’t even have time to think about local government elections,” ensures Hovhannisyan. To our question whether he agrees with the opinion of the member of the political board of the Republic Party Souren Sourenyants, according to which the revolution must be organized from the bottom to above Hovhannisyan answered, “I agree that there is an issue like that; however the government must realize that new national elections must be held to make it possible to overcome the internal crisis in the country. I don’t quite agree with Sourenyants’ opinion that revolution is a long process. I am more concerned about the fact that both the opposition and the government must be willing to overcome the marred reputation of the country. The opposition and government must cooperate to improve the image of Armenia and the first step for that is the willingness of the government to hold extraordinary parliamentary elections. And the local government election is currently non-political process.” Hovhannisyan mentions that the expectation of the extraordinary elections of the NA is not a good wish at all because the pan-national movement will not fade. He is sure that once a week major oppositional events will take place, which will shake the whole governmental elite. “And there is going to be moment when the government will start to loathe itself. That way they will realize that they cannot go on like that because they will not be able to deserve the credo of the people. And so the government will gradually realize that it doesn’t have the support of people and it is not able to resolve the problems of the country and withstand the main foreign challenges. Only then it will undertake decisive steps to actually show to people that they are willing to cooperate,” says the political scientist, who believes that the conduct of extraordinary NA elections will recover the trust of people to the government.
However, according to him, the government must also provide relevant conditions for the conduct of free and fair elections. “Of course, the government will try to offer local solutions to relive the situation. It means they may let certain oppositionists win in certain majoritarian districts to emphasize their willingness to cooperate with the opposition. They may try to conduct free and fair elections and offer partial solutions. The government may offer the solution through local government elections by letting certain oppositionists win in certain communities; however it won’t be a major demonstration of cooperation and neither will it be an achievement for the opposition. It will not have any crucial improvement to the situation, however there may be certain positive impulses created, which are of course desirable,” says Hovhannisyan.