The upcoming Armenian parliamentary elections, which are going to be a serious milestone for securing democratic developments in Armenia, “promise” the Armenian people not only inter-political tension, but also distrust or manifestations of “militant” disagreements. This does not mean that we are “making” the reader believe that the elections are going to be fraudulent essentially impacting the voices of the people and the accessibility of those voices.
We are certain that there will be disagreements regardless of the election results because during the pre-electoral period, numerous political forces will try to explain their own losses by bringing up objective and subjective reasons and not blaming them, but external factors. It is worth mentioning that these kinds of predictions are not a result of the creative mind at work because during the past couple of months, there are different opinions that the elections are going to be another “theatrical” performance. This gets us to thinking that starting from May 13, Armenian presses and television stations will secure a spot for the announcements regarding the mass electoral violations. Proof of this is the reality that Armenian public opinion is now guided by political forces aimed to form and deepen distrust in the final results of the elections. In fact, that is especially common in the circle of oppositional forces that have not come to terms in the “enemy-government” struggle and unification. Of course, it is not excluded that the elections may not be like that, but the political forces considering themselves democratic need not forget that their “hypothesis of innocence” may be applied in the case of the good or bad authorities that “tell the dark side of the story”, not due to political foresights and/or certainties or the evasion of self-criticism in case of possible losses, but rather the facts.
We are certain that the reader will be interested in finding out extra information by getting a total picture of the elections via the articles on elections printed in many Armenian presses (pro-government or oppositional), We are not going to rate the context of those articles because our goal is not to agree or disagree, but rather to protocol the actual situation.
During the past week, we observed the many articles on electoral lists, principles of formation of those lists printed in “Iravunk”, “Aravot”, “Haykakan Zhamanak”, “168 Hours”, “Hayots Ashkharh”, “Azg”, “Fourth Power”, “Pakagits”, “Yerevan Times”, “Hayk”, and “Yerkir”. We understand why these presses are printing that information because it is important for Armenian citizens who have the right to vote to get a possible picture of the future parliament. In fact, different presses presented people nominated in the proportional and majority electoral systems and articles not only on the informative, but also clear, political positions of political parties with inclinations to obtain deputy mandates. As you read the articles, you notice the familiar symptom of Armenian mass media, when the best way for fighting against the political rival is not considered the explanation of his own advantages, but raising his voice about the bad comments addressed to him fairly or unfairly.
Sometimes there are cases of “blackening” political rivals with the use of “new”, as well as words used in daily conversational Armenian but unacceptable in literal Armenian. In this sense “Pakagits” is distinct with its articles by which the reader may enrich his vocabulary or include other words not common in the Armenian language such as “ktsogh” (cheater), “dabro” (OK), “akhper-tgherk” (bro-guys) to name a few.
A considerable amount of articles printed in last week’s “Pakagits” was dedicated to the coalitional Armenian Republican Party. The misinformed reader may comprehend the articles on the Armenian Republican Party in the sense that we are dealing with another expression of the inclinations of using the right of freedom of speech on the part of the authorities. In reality, however, “Pakagits” referred to the Republican Party by presenting the activities of the Republicans from the position of the “extremist” opposition which is familiar with the content of the articles, “moving forward” by throwing down the reputation of the Republican Party or perhaps revealing the flaws. We can argument that in the pre-electoral period, by reading “Pakagits”, we deal with oppositional and the free “microphone” by which the reader has the opportunity to get acquainted with alternative information and evaluations and the public is “competent” to clarify assertions and the level of impartiality.
“Aravot” also drew its attention to the electoral lists last week by presenting some representatives elected in the majority electoral system. It is worth mentioning that in contrast to “Pakagits”, oppositional “Aravot” did not strike the reader’s eye with any “special” behavior towards any of the ruling political forces. In fact, “Aravot” referred to the activities of the governmental and oppositional political forces, as well as the political processes taking place in modern Armenian life and the articles on the possible developments of those processes that bear witness that “Aravot” did not elude discussing the existing flaws of the opposition, as well as criticized the authorities. With regard to the upcoming parliamentary elections, “Aravot” predicts that the most heated and uncompromising struggle is going to be between the two ruling political parties: “Bargavach Hayastan” (Prosperous Armenia) and the Republican Party.
Just like the other papers, the oppositional “Haykakan Zhamanak” paper also focused on the elections. The motives behind the segregation of the opposition and the issues concerning the results of the upcoming parliamentary elections were among the article topics. It is worth mentioning that “Haykakan Zhamanak” had its position from the start according to which the results of the upcoming parliamentary elections can not be considered legitimate. The press explains that the reason for that is not based on the ballots, but filling the brains of society for five-six months by citing how the authorities give electoral bribes and “take over” television airwaves with the purpose of self-advertisement. The press, in essence, secretly accepts the “victory” of the authorities in the upcoming parliamentary elections and “explains” the disallowance or litigation of that by the current non-legitimate conduct. This will become clearer if we take into consideration the fact that the paper does not state anything about the legitimacy of the opposition’s victory.
The “A1+” electronic media agreed with “Haykakan Zhamanak” . “A1+” presents the results of the monitoring implemented by the Yerevan Press Club. Based on those results, president of the Yerevan Press Club Boris Navasardyan concludes that three oppositional parties, including “Republic”, “Inheritance” and “New Times”, are boycotted by Armenian television stations. “Hayots Ashkharh” also referred to the issue concerning parliamentary elections by trying to predict the future classification of political forces in Armenia. According to “Hayots Ashkharh”, the main list consists of three pro-government (Republican Party, Prosperous Armenia and the ARF) parties and three oppositional (Armenian Popular Party, “National Unity”, “Country of Law”) parties of which the only two aspirants to win are the Republican and Prosperous Armenia parties. The potential of these two is so large that they can both form the majority of the future National Assembly. The paper also writes that …”the end of nominations goes to show that the upcoming electoral struggle is not going to be about ideological principles, but rather the struggle of political forces for distribution of power on the one hand, and the consistent steps aimed to turn the May 12 elections into a simple tool for “having an impact” on Armenia. Interestingly enough, there are no criticisms of political rivals in the articles.
“Iravunk” especially draws its attention to the pre-electoral developments, the working manner of the authorities and the opposition, as well as articles on the electoral lists of candidates in the proportional and/or majority electoral systems. “Iravunk” does not strike the reader’s eye with the aggression from abroad and shows a critical approach when it comes to evaluating the working manner of the ruling forces. The paper states that “while studying the lists of “Prosperous Armenia” and the Republican Party, they immediately come to the conclusion that those organizations are unbiased towards the conduct of fair elections. In the case of the Republican Party’s list of unpopular candidates with political and/or administrative power and money and the inclusion of people who are complete strangers to the society in the case of “Prosperous Armenia”, go to show that the two parties are going to the elections by taking the road that has been taken before-pressuring the people by money and power”. But the fact that the oppositional political parties decided to participate alone in the parliamentary elections, according to the paper, gave the authorities the opportunity to show once again that the opposition has expired.
The oppositional “168 Hours” paper paid special attention to “opposition workers” in the circle of oppositionists. The articles present the views of leader of “New Times” political party Aram Karapetyan who has promised to give the names of phony and fraudulent oppositionists with proofs. The articles lack aggression or non-constructive criticisms.
Besides the articles on the abovementioned topics, last week’s presses also included topics that were almost general for all, such as the announcement of General Manvel Grigoryan about the protection of members of the Land Defenders’ Union, as well as articles on the newly founded National United Liberal Party and Garik Martirosyan’s nomination on the list.