ARF members think that the headquarters will be able to operate effectively only if it consists of both oppositional and pro-government powers. It’s worth mentioning that the ARF had made such a suggestion before the previous elections too.
“At the time, most of the political parties participating in the discussions agreed with us, nevertheless they refused to sign the document later on” said an ARF representative, NA deputy Spartak Seiranyan. The latter says that the mentioned document hasn’t been signed neither by the oppositional nor pro-government parties; it is becoming fiction, i.e. it can be in effect if it is approved by either of the branches, but not both of them at the same time.
Back then the proposal just didn’t cut it. Isn’t the government responsible for organizing fair and free elections? Thus, if some government representatives suggest founding such an institution to control electoral processes, then a question comes up: just how can they control the other branches of government? Mr. Seyranyan had this to say in response to that: “All the political powers participating in the upcoming elections are responsible for the fairness of electoral processes. All the powers that have representatives, observers and proxies in electoral commissions are responsible to make sure that the elections are fair.” We wonder which branch is considered to be a potential violator of elections since a branch of the governing parties wants to found a supervising institution consisting of different parties. To this question Mr. Seiranyan answered, “For instance, maybe you, of course if you want to stuff ten ballots into a ballot box for me”. As for the political field, it seems that this recommendation is not welcome. For instance, in regard to the mentioned issue, the head of the NU faction, Artashes Geghamyan says that they will welcome the ARF’s recommendation only if they announce before founding such an institution that neither of the representatives who were backed by the government, who were members of the electoral commissions during the 2005 Constitutional amendments referendum and violated the electoral laws will be included in such activities during the upcoming parliamentary elections. “If they make such an announcement, it will change the situation of the political field in Armenia and will create grounds for us to implement a new policy” said Geghamyan.
As for the Armenian Democratic Party, they think that politicians should take certain steps and work, but not just make such announcements. According to ADP representative Rouzan Khachatryan, first of all they should punish the violators of the previous elections and then do that. The latter says that the main initiators of such programs are representing the parties that played key roles in the violations of the previous elections. Does this mean that if the ARF suggests the ADP to form an organization that would be in charge of controlling the legitimacy and fairness of the upcoming elections, then the ADP may refuse? “I can’t say that since that kind of suggestion still hasn’t been made and we haven’t discussed that issue either” said R. Khachatryan. Furthermore, we were informed by “New Times” political party that they were not going to join them either. The head of the NT, Aram Karapetyan told us that the ARF always proposes such recommendations on the threshold of elections and after the elections it turns out that there have been too many violations and the ARF didn’t do anything. The NT leader does not think that the ARF members have proposed that recommendation with honesty. “It is turning into fiction; I would say that it’s like a game” said Aram Karapetyan and added, “When the time comes and we see that the parliamentary elections are not organized out of turn, we will propose our own recommendations and will decide what to do exactly. I think they should wait for recommendations from us too”. “It is absurd. They say that they should join, discuss the issue and confess that they are going to violate the elections. In fact, this is what they are saying now. It is cynical to say ‘let’s gather people, let’s try not to let anyone violate the elections’; it doesn’t matter because there will still be violations. Wasn’t the suggestion to organize a referendum proposed by them as well?” says Aram Karapetyan. Furthermore, republican Armen Ashotyan, who represents a coalition branch with the ARF, does not agree with his colleagues either. The latter said that he was expressing only his opinion, since according to their by-laws, official statements can be made only by the leaders and added that he thought that there had to be civic control over the electoral procedures. Armen Ashotyan said that the mentioned civic control could be carried out by domestic, international electoral monitoring organizations and proxies. “I think that in such conditions there is no need for the mentioned institution since each of the parties can discuss those issues with their party members and let everyone know what they come up with. By being backed by the NGOs and mass media, they can help solve the problems. Finally, there are government departments that are in charge of instituting legal proceedings to reveal the violations,” said the NA deputy. The latter also said that Armenian legislation has the necessary ground for controlling the electoral procedures. It is clear that the government has real opportunities to violate elections.
Thus, if one of the branches of the government is recommending to establish an institution for the purpose of controlling the electoral processes, it is logical to assume that this branch is afraid of the other branch, in the given case the Republican party may make electoral violations. Armen Ashotyan assures that their party is one of those rare powers really interested in having free, fair and democratic elections since they have real opportunities and mechanisms to win the elections in such democratic conditions. “Policy has its specific factors and before elections, all the political parties are potential competitors for each other. I don’t think there is anything wrong about this recommendation regardless of the fact whether it is honest or not, whether it is done to undermine others or not”, said Armen Ashotyan. Ashotyan thinks that it is inefficient to establish a headquarters since all the powers will gather and will be concentrated there. “If it is done that way, whom are they going to control? In other words, I see that there are components for campaigning,” said the republican MP and added, “It is clear that the pre-election period creates pre-election tendencies, which are not excluded even in our coalition.”