Although coalition parties deny that they have started to discuss in their respective parties the issue of their party lists for the 2012 parliamentary elections. At any rate their hidden conversations about this matter have started long ago. And indeed such discussions don’t only take place in coalition parties. This theme is much more of a serious matter for opposition parties and particularly the ANC because it would be really hard to satisfy the demands and desires of all the 18 parties included in the ANC. By such conversations the members of coalition parties are trying to understand what opinion the leadership of their respective parties has about them in order to assess what chances they have to enter the parliament – through single mandate system or proportional lists. It means many of them are trying to understand the mood of their superior. Indeed, this assumes that such discussions are taking place not with the guard of the party but among those, who have at least the “luck” of communicating with the party leaders. As they say they discuss this matter with the “boss” not directly but through solicitation. Despite the statement made by the deputy-chair of the RPA (it’s clear that Razmik Zohrabyan didn’t make this system on his own), according to which in the next convocation of the parliament the business community is going to have minimum involvement and that the upcoming parliament is going to consist of professionals, many of the businessmen mention at certain occasions that they are going to nominate their candidacies. However, judging from the approaches overwhelming during the discussions, it becomes clear that the authorities are really inclined to reducing number of businessmen in the parliament. But who are the ones that will substitute them based on the scarcity of human capacity of each party? The thing is that currently different people are sent from various camps to select parties, the goal of who is to start a new quality lobbying and advocacy at the NA. This new quality has concrete criteria and the new faces should conform to these criteria. So the criteria are the following: young, tall, representative look, diploma of higher education in some foreign university (grades are not that important but desirably with good ones), “modern hairstyle.” In a word that person should be a glamorous young man (they don’t signify the gender very much because of known reasons). As one of our interviewees has noticed, in the event of providing all these criteria they won’t pay attention to other qualities any more. They mean the intellectual abilities because the latter mentions the submission of a diploma from a foreign university already comes to prove intellectual capacities. Yesterday when speaking to us lot of people mentioned that Armenia doesn’t lack such young people. Moreover, they don’t even have the need to recruit them because during these years many of them had already joined MIAK. However, according to the people we talked to, for many others these criteria are not acceptable and now it’s too soon to predict whether they will have their seats in the parliament or not despite the intensive conduct of lobbying. The thing is that the NA businessmen MPs, instead of whom many people wish to see young MIAK members in the next parliament, have serious complaints, which they deliver at various occasions. The problem is that the businessmen, who have a great role in providing the desirable results for elections, declare that if the leadership decides that they want to see new professionals in the next NA then they will not show any support and will remain passive. By the way, in this regard, the conditions of RPA MPs are pretty touch as the faction has quit many businessmen. The Prosperous Armenia MPs are quite concerned too. In the Legal State there are no such issues thus far. As it’s known the Legal State will run in a joint list with the RPA. It means that the destiny of their list will not be decided by Artur Baghdasaryan but by Serzh Sargsyan. As of the RPA, then according to our information, the next convocation of the parliament will not include Gagik Abrahamyan, Vardan Ayvazyan, Alexander Sargsyan, Ashot Aghababyan, Tigran Arzakantsyan, Manvel Badeyan, Arkadi Hambardzumyan, Manvel Ghazaryan, Vahe Hakobyan, Ruben Hayrapetyan (he personally said that), Grigor Margaryan, Khachik Manukyan, Armen Purtoyan, Alexan Petrosyan and Levon Sargsyan. According to the same source the NA will not include Zohrab Zohrabyan, Vazgen Karakhanyan, Razmik Zohrabyan, Misha Stepanyan, Lernik Alexanyan, Hrant Grigoryan, Nahapet Gevorgyan and Arakel Movsisyan. By the way, according to another source, from the Sahakyans family only one Sahakyan will be represented and that one Sahakyan will be Galust Sahakyan because according to rumors Arman Sahakyan wants to be in the executive rather than in the legislative. By the way, the RPA is also seriously discussing the names of women, who will be included on the party list. They say that many of the women are fighting to ensure that Hermine Naghdalyan is not included on the passing spots of the RPA party list. But according to our information these attempts are in vain because she has very strong support. The thing is that Naghdalyan is the chair of the economic department of the PACE and the government can’t help giving her an NA mandate. Most probably, the RPA list will also include the CEO of Mika Cement Naira Martirosyan and the head of the RPA women’s council, member of Yerevan city council Naira Hayrapetyan. As of the Prosperous Armenia, then according to our sources the following MPs will not run again – Armen Abrahamyan, Karo Karapetyan (all time MP by different parties), Harutyun Gharaghyozyan, Ashot Tonoyan, Versandik Hakobyan, Armen Melikyan, Melik Manukyan and Aragats Akhoyan. The list may also include the rector of Haybusak university Anahit Harutyunyan.
