Political parties that are going to contest in the upcoming parliamentary elections have already released their pre-election platforms. Along with platforms they also published series of campaign promises which will be fulfilled in the next 5 years, if of course they win the elections.
First of all three pre-election platforms of the three major parties are focused, such as the platforms of the Republican Party, Prosperous Armenia and the Legal State. Those parties claim to gain majority in the Parliament. So what do those parties promise in the farewell of this five-year period and for the coming one? Those promises, however, are interesting in comparison with each other. Have those parties fulfilled their platform provisions published five years ago, when today they suggest another bunch of promises to public? And the most important thing is what particularly was fulfilled among 2007 promises? By the way, the Republican Party has introduced its party platform by drawing parallels with the previous one, and mentioning what has been done since 2007 till now. However, looking through the two platforms of the RPA, one comes to see that the present one is composed to stir up emotions and sentiments, compared with the previous one being published 5 years ago, which was absolutely free from such things. Compared to the other platforms, this time the exactness, platform provisions are very few, instead general promises are prevailing. The RA citizens have never missed those general promises uttered by many high-post officials during the last years. Thus, for instance, the RA president has got a journalist’s educational background and the Prime-Minister likes to deliver lectures. Probably this time they have decided not to make specific promises to avoid inaccuracies after the comparison in the next five years. However, the RPA platform covers all the spheres, such as the foreign policy, national security and the economy. Certainly, the economic sector is the most interesting with all its spheres. But surprisingly it becomes evident, that the most romantic and dull part is the economic sector. It is the very sphere which supposes radical reforms on “The Change of the Economic Policy”, and there are only a few sentences delivered after the title: “The Republican Party of Armenia values the importance of creating guarantees for each citizen’s worthy living,” “The RA needs investments, modern enterprises and new technologies. We see the possible implementation of those assets on the basis of state-private cooperation principle. “We are obliged to provide equal competitive opportunities, and to exclude the superior post abuse by the big business.” As implemented activities, it is only written that the global crisis revealed the strong and weak sides of our economy (it is still a mystery which are the strong sides of our economy, A.A.) “We gained lessons and have completely restored the critical index of the GDP, the economy has become more multiple, and today we are even stronger by that,” says the RPA platform. It also says that it is the first time in the history of our newly independent country that government could support the RA entrepreneur to overcome negative consequences of the global crisis. Only this much is written, and no figure or index is mentioned about the economic development of the country carried out by the ruling RPA in the last 5 years. Naturally, there is not specific promise. It is worth to remind that the RPA promised in its pre-election platform that the GDP of our country should have a double growth in 2012. 5 years ago the RA GDP was around 3.1 trillion AMD, and in 2011 it was around 3.8 trillion AMD. That is to say it has increased only by 22 percent, which was probably not due to its volume but to inflation. If the GDP had a double growth that it should have surpassed 6 trillion AMD. RPA promised to provide double increase of salaries, however during the last five years the average salary has reached from 74.000 to 115.000 AMD. The situation is the same with several branches of economy, such as the industry, agriculture and several infra-structural layers. “Economic ratio of the GDP has reached to 17 percent.” is written in the RPA platform. The influence is that it has increased from the specifically low index and reached to 17 percent. However, the financial value of the industrial volume of 2007 was 716 billion AMD, which made only 23 percent in case of 3.1 trillion GDP. That is to say, the industry has not risen in the last 5 years, but fell and reached up to 17 percent. Whereas, the RPA pre-election platform promised to raise the economic ratio in the GDP at least 5 years ago. “The tax burden will be continuously transferred towards the large tax-payers, by increasing the taxes/GDP correlation year by year,” we read in RPA 2012 pre-election platform. 2007 platform was promising a large increase of the tax income and GDP correlation, as an important factor for decreasing the shadow economy. Let’s remember that according to the World Bank data the ratio of GDP and taxes in Armenia in 2007 was 16%, in 2008 – 17,3% and in 2009 it lowered up to 16,5%. In 2011 it wasn’t able to reach the margin of 17% again. Let’s also remember that the ratio of GDP/taxes is the index, which doesn’t have any relation to the economic index so much. It reflects the index of black market in the economy. And the lower this index is the higher the shadow is. Let’s repeat one more time that in the neighboring Georgia is index is 25%. And the global economic crisis, which is so often pointed out by our government doesn’t have any fault in the fact that in our country the shadow grows instead of reducing. This means that even this promise of the RPA didn’t come true. It’s spare to mention that the government didn’t ensure the two and a half times increase of pensions and benefits. Nor did it ensure the decrease of poverty by 1,5 times. The average working pension from 21,370 AMD reached 31,225 AMC. The subsidies provided to low-income families from 21,100 AMD reached 29,530 AMD. And the level of poverty instead of reducing from 27% reached 37% since 2007. The social-economic section of the RPA pre-election platform is as vulnerable as the similar section of the speech of the Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan during the 13th RPA congress. The same general situation exists and the same unsubstantiated promises in all the sectors – economy, culture, state governance, etc. By the way, the promises are almost the same and as incomplete as in 2007. And it’s hard to say that if we follow the RPA slogan “Believe in order to change” the abovementioned indexes will change and the Armenian citizen will have a more dignified life.
Like RPA
Almost the same general situation exists in the pre-election platforms of the Prosperous Armenia and the Legal State. The same incomplete promises are being repeated. And it’s not clear whether the PA, which aimed for 50+1 of the votes, will be able to increase Armenia’s GDP, GDP/Taxes ratio, the average salary, pensions and benefits in order to enable each citizen to take care of the family, to ensure that the pensioner gets a decent pension, the patient receives a quality medical care and the student will receive a quality education. All this is detected in the RPA platform though. To what extent can the salaries grow to reduce the level of migration, which is so criticized by the PA? The economy and the rates of its growth are measured by concrete numbers. And the only concrete and realistic number that is mentioned in the PA platform relates to the establishment of tractor stations in each marz, which the chairman of the PA Gagik Tsarukyan has already tried to do. He imported many tractors to Armenia. But is the PA accurate and sincere in its statements when it promises to fight against the black market in the country but fails the law on the limitation of cash transactions in the parliament? Have the members of the PA faction voted for the notorious law on emergencies because of their convictions of strengthening democracy in Armenia? This law assumes the use of army against the people in the case of need or emergency. And it’s not excluded that this law can be practiced for political purposes as well. And in general the PA is as accountable for the mistakes and failures of the past 5 years as the ruling party because it was a part of the ruling coalition and the direct participant of the activities of the government. The four ministries, the portfolios of which belong to the PA manage 35% of the country’s budget. The coalition partner Armen Ashotyan fairly reminded the PA of this fact. Similar to the PA the Legal State is also responsible for the broken promises of the government. This party has been lauding the steps of the government party since 2008. The platform of the Legal State has almost the same ungrounded promises as in 2007. The only basic difference of the platform booklet is that in the picture this time next to Artur Baghdasrayan we can see the minister of emergencies Armen Yeritsyan. And perhaps this time the only evident difference of the Legal State platform in terms of numbers is the amount of benefits provided to the mothers of children at their birth. They suggest paying 50,000 AMD to the mother of a single child at birth; 100,000 AMD for the second baby; 600,000 AMD for the third child. So the Armenian citizens should decide on May 6 whether they should trust their 5-year future to the Legal State or any other party.