This pre-election period is the most interesting one in the history of modern Armenia. One of the most interesting things is the Legal State party too.
Till now people thought that the LS did not have any opportunities to be elected in the next parliament. Even experts did not pay any attention to this party and did not discuss this name in their analysis. However, now the name of this party is shown in the media often and after their general meeting on March 3 the leader of this party Artur Baghdasaryan is invited for interview more often. The leader of the LS is not a new person in politics and people know him very well. However, people wonder what Artur Baghdasaryan is going to say. Or, what will he say now? Several days ago Artur Baghdasaryan was hosted by ArmNews company to give interview to Artak Alexanyan. Alexanyan asked the leader of the LS why voter would vote for their party, and as their party was a part of the coalition why voters would not vote for the RPA and what would make them to vote for the LS. In answer to this question Baghdasaryan said the same things as he had been saying during the past two weeks. He said that the LS had initiated over 200 bills in the parliament, over 70,000 people had received their credits lost after the Soviet times and no kindergartens had been privatized during the recent years. All this was due to the LS. Of course people can criticize many of these points, but here we will discuss one of them, which concerns birth relief. Artur Baghdasaryan said that during the past two years the birth rate had grown. Was it due to the LS or their initiative to adopt the system of free birth medical services?
Is there anything that the society should thank this party for? Has the birth rate really grown during the past 2-3 years? This information can be found on the web site of the national statistics service. According to this information, in 2011 in Armenia the birth rate was 43.447 children, which was less than in 2010 (44.825). This means that the birth rate has not grown but has reduced. To be honest, the birth rate has grown compared to 2008 (the birth relief law was applied in the middle of 2008). However, in the previous year before that there had been growth of birth rate too (37.639 children were born in 2006, 40.105 – in 2007, and 41.238 in 2008). This means that no one can prove that the growth of birth rate in 2009 and 2010 was due to the support for birth medical services and financial aid.
Is the real effect of these changes so big that they are praising this every time they have a small opportunity? First, the fact that the medical services related to birth does not mean yet that the government covers all costs related to it. There are other expenses such as payments for medicines or other necessary items. Also there are expenses related to small payments that people usually pay as tips to all doctors and nurses related to the process. There are also expenses for buying necessary items for a new born child. Families later also pay for diapers, baby food and other things as well.
For the first baby the government gives 50,000 drams, but the parents have to acquire and present several documents. A child’s monthly support fee is 18,000 drams. Can this amount of money be stimulus for a young couple to have a baby? Everyone can answer this question.
Whatever the results are and whether t really helps or no, it should be encouraged that the government has initiated such good thing. Even though the amount of the support is small, but the fact is very good. However, the officials should not exaggerate this.
Now let’s go back to the question who we must thank for this even small but good decision. Are all the credits for the Legal State party only? This question has been asked since 2009 because at that time Heghine Bisharyan announced that the LS had been able to pass the bill on birth relief due to a struggle with their coalition partners. At that time the 168 Hours newspaper asked the other partners of the coalition to comment on this announcement. PA member naira Zohrabyan said concerning this issue, “I think it is not correct to privatize the entire work of the coalition due to one power only. This was the initiative of the coalition and it had the support of all the coalition powers and their platforms. Even though each of those parties had taken responsibility for different sectors, I don’t think it is correct to give the credits to one party for any work done.” RPA representative Galust Sahakyan said concerning this issue, “Every political power has a certain political goal and direction of work and is trying to use it for its reputation. The RPA is the only power in the coalition that has absolute majority and has the key and is looking for solutions of many problems. It is normal that other parties may try to represent it as their own achievement. If someone plants a tree, others may come to hang their flags on that tree and say that they were the ones who did it. We should understand this.” Three years have passed and there is no need for any other comments. Now we have to wait and see whether this will be enough for them to cross the limit of 5% to get seats in the parliament.