– There are 71 people on the proportional electoral list of the “National Unity” political party. Why are there 71 people when other parties have more than 100 people on their lists?
– That number was decided by chance. We had decided to include the well-prepared members on the list. I think that the number is not essential; the important things are intelligence and expertise. We first took into consideration the professionalism before including the member on the list. Four of the first five candidates on the list have been deputies.
– Do you think that it is right to have a 15% quota of women on the list by law?
– Women make up 16.9% of the candidates on our list. The tenth candidate of the first top ten is a woman, while there are two women on the second top ten. If we have 25 mandates in the future parliament, then 3 women from our party will be deputies. It is important to have women’s representation in parliament. I think that even 15% is not enough. We can raise that percentage next time around. Women are much more active, willing and smarter than some male deputies. I think that 30% of deputies should be women, but not more than that. I’m certain that the 50/50 division would be wrong because after all, the woman is also a mother and must spend more time taking care of the family.
– There are not too many young people on your list. Why is that?:
– Youth make up 26% of the list. That is both few and normal. It turned out that the youth make up 26%, middle-aged people make up 47% and other candidates over the age of 55 are 27%. Young candidates are as much as approximately the senior candidates. So, before the middle-aged candidates reach the 55 limit, young people will have secured their spots. Of course, we could have included more young people. We just chose our most active youth. In general, I think that the more the youth, the better. You can’t gain experience on the outside; you can be literate and prepared, but you can only have experience as a deputy inside parliament.
– How do you rate the work done on list preparations?
– If we were to prepare the list beforehand, we would have included more women and youth. In the future, I would like to have the lists be formed in the course of four years and not during a month. You have to prepare people to be included on the list. If we were to start the formation of our lists back in 2003, we would have had a much better list.
– Are you satisfied with the list?
– I am satisfied that we presented what we have. Our education census is high. Sixty candidates of the seventy-one listed have a college education. There is nobody on the list that has a middle school education, eleven candidates have a BA or some professional education; 15% are candidates and/or doctors of sciences, nine are top-ranking military officers and two are non-partisan. We are not afraid of that number because it could have been higher. We have included 55% of the candidates from the Marzes (provinces). I think that this is a good step if we take into consideration that we are going to have 100% participation in the proportional elections.
– Aghasi Arshakyan left your political party. What was the reason?
– He joined the political party a year ago. The reason was most probably because we had placed him 21st on the list. He is currently 3rd in the Democratic Way Party list. We are pleased to hear that; he is still our friend and we continue to work with him in the political field. It is just that Aghasi Arshakyan believes that he could be of more help to that party.