The Armenian National Assembly election campaign kicked off nearly two weeks ago. It is gradually being contoured how each political party is trying to present itself in front of the public. Recently the theme of the subsequent debate at the “Pressing” club attached to the “168 Hours” edition was the campaign process.
According to the head speaker of the debate and vice editor of “168 Hours” Armen Baghdasaryan, it seems as though the political processes have moved to the campaigning field.
“In other words, all the political debates have moved to the television (and to public squares). The campaign has been going on for a week. I put myself in the shoes of an average voter and, unfortunately, I am not able to decide whom to vote for because the campaign is divided into a couple of parts. You have one party that is clearly stating some things; then you have another party that is preparing some image clips. Someone says that their party is going to create a city for criminals, the other says that they are going to reestablish the Soviet Union, etc.,” said Baghdasaryan. He added that there are campaigns that reach the level of absurdity, and campaigns that say nothing; there are also people presenting clear plans, etc. However, according to him, there are more desires than clear plans in the campaign advertisements. According to Baghdasaryan, it would be preferable to have the parties participating in the elections to clearly present their positions on some pivotal issues, such as how they are going to settle the Karabakh conflict, or how they see the Armenian economy in the next five years, as well as other issues.
Director of the “P-Art” company Karen Kocharyan explains that the political parties are not touching upon these pivotal issues in their campaigns due to the fact that the political parties are currently doing what the people want.
“The elite want to know how the country is going to advance. But when “Prosperous Armenia” distributes string to bind bundles of hay, or Arthur Baghdasaryan says that he will return the deposits of the people, etc., they are doing that because the people want that. The people have turned into consumers and that dictates how they are providing things to them. They say whatever the people want to hear. What is the campaign advertisement of the “Prosperous Armenia” party? They just show something depicting the good life, in other words, an abstract, simply a good future. We all want a good future, but how?” says Kocharyan. He also mentioned that he is familiar with, for example, the platform booklet of the proportional electoral system of the Republican Party and “everything is clearly written” there, but the candidates of the Armenian Republican Party’s majority electoral system, according to Kocharyan, are talking more about consumer phenomena.
Leader of the Republican faction Galust Sahakyan interrupted and was amazed that some people, including the observers, announce that everyone is talking about the same things during the campaign. According to Sahakyan, the main ideology is the strengthening of the state and there can not be the birth of any other ideology in Armenia. Here, he says, there is a simply a difference in principles, and each person presents the road towards strengthening of the state based on his vision. Sahakyan believes that there are issues that “cannot be explained to the people”, for example, issues concerning imports and exports.
“You can talk about that with people who understand you. Isn’t it obvious that there should be a push to increase exports? Isn’t it obvious that it is not that easy for a country in a blockade? We need time to increase exports. This is the situation we are in,” he mentioned and said once again that the only problem the country faces now is the strengthening of the state.
“If you talk about other ideas, there is no consumer. The public must be in the role of a consumer. People want the country to be strong. They do that with the vision that there should be places to work, for people to live…” says Sahakyan. Touching upon the essence of the campaign, Sahakyan underscored that “it is evident that the Republican Party is not able to take advantage of effective populism” and that is why the Republicans are stating the reality in their platforms, that after there has been this much growth, then we will have this much and so on. The leader of the Republican parliamentary faction finds that the parties that have something to say can not say all they have to say during a one-month campaign, while the parties that don’t have anything to say, according to Sahakyan, must either curse, gossip or slander. He drew attention to the strategy chosen by the leader of the “New Times” political party Aram Karapetyan. According to Sahakyan, Karapetyan is simply summing up all that the opposition was saying for the past couple of years-illegitimate president, criminal authorities, corruption-and he “recognizes people whom the public know as criminals and challenges them”. However, Sahakyan says that another part of the pro-government parties have adopted the following method of campaigning: “We have prepared the juicy stuff; the rest just promised and didn’t do anything”. This hint was probably made to the ARF which, being in government, is trying to do everything possible to separate itself from the errors of the government.
We don’t answer here and are not going to answer because I think that when the governmental parties say “someone else is taking credit for what we have done”, the person who says that will probably receive at most 8-10% of the votes. In other words, we don’t want to close the paths. Let them say it, let them say it on our account. We have differentiated our approaches. We don’t have time to strike back at every attacker. We use our time to say what we have to say. We are not going to campaign by making great declarations. The best tool is feet. People have to walk, in other words, people have to walk village after village. We accept that method,” says Sahakyan.
According to him, there cannot be any ideological struggle now because there is only one ideology.
“We must all say the same thing and that is the strengthening of the state,” he said. Sahakyan assures that the Republicans don’t think that they will benefit by making someone vulnerable, and they are against the tense election struggles. If there happens to be tension in the election struggle, the result, according to Sahakyan, are violations.
According to the leader of the “Christian-Democratic Rebirth” party (CDRP) Sos Gimishyan, it is obvious that the Republican party’s campaign and the opposition’s campaign are going to differ because the Republicans are in power and are responsible for what they do, while the opposition, for example the CDRP, is only going to try to evaluate what has been done and present its visions of solving the existing issues.
“We are going to campaign based on the following principles: there is certain progress in the country, very little, but there is progress. We are going to assert the positive, yes, we are going to say that it is good. We can not overlook what is good; in that case, you won’t have the right to say what is bad. We are going to emphasize what is bad and are going to propose solutions. There is a proposal to increase pensions by two-fold. I am certain that it is possible to raise the pensions by two-fold, just with the 10% of the shady economy existing in Armenia,” says Gimishyan. He also mentioned that they have a certain electorate, certain people on whom they rely. As far as the Karabakh conflict settlement is concerned, according to Gimishyan, if Armenians create a democratic state in Armenia, “the Karabakh conflict will settle on its own without huge efforts.” Armen Baghdasaryan did not agree with this.
“Excuse me, perhaps this will sound crude, but you are all deluding the people. For example, Mr. Gimishyan, you say that if we create a democratic state, the Karabakh conflict will be settled on its own. I don’t believe that. You are saying a good thing; yes, we must turn Armenia into a democratic country and you formulate it nicely. That is different. But in my opinion, with that nice formulation you delude the people. Let’s talk about what we can do to tell people the truth,” said Baghdasaryan. However, it turns out that telling the truth is not that easy and preferable.
According to member of the Republican faction Samvel Nikoyan, all political parties move towards the market during elections, in other words, toward demand. So, the political field, according to him, says what the people want to hear (of course with certain nuances). Nikoyan says that ideologies are often subjected to transformation under that influence. According to him, in all parts of the world the pre-election period is considered to be a struggle for votes that is placed in the framework of certain laws. The deputy finds that the political parties must give the answers to the important questions, but there are questions that are impossible to “fit in the pre-election booklet”.
“There are issues that are not necessary to be reflected on there. They are reflected in the National Security charter, which is the existing plan of the government,” said Nikoyan and added: “Let’s pray to God that the campaign continues with this pattern. I mean that it is still calm and it seems as though it differs from the previous ones in the sense of mutual cursing and throwing dust in each other’s faces.”
It turns out that Mr. Nikoyan was also amazed that the OSCE observers had said that the struggle is not proceeding at the ideological level.
“What? Is it proceeding at the ideological level in Europe? No. The struggle is going for the votes of the voters. After the elections, each political party must obviously think about ideology; it must think about fitting its manner of working within the framework of its ideology. During elections, the parties mobilize the voters and then try to raise the voters from the market mentality (concerning the buying of votes),” says Nikoyan.
Emphasizing that he appreciates that the Republican Party is not occupied with populism, leader of the “National Democratic Party” (NDP) Shavarsh Kocharyan mentioned that that is not enough for them and the people, and a new approach is needed.
“For example, Mr. Kocharyan, you express very reasonable thoughts in your party’s campaign advertisements, but for example, there is no thought expressed in the advertisement of the “Heritage” party. It says, “Are you standing up?” and the reply is “I am standing up” and then Arto Tunchboyadjan sings. Apparently, the rating of “Heritage” is growing, but I don’t think that the rating of your political party is increasing due to the reasonable thoughts expressed during the campaign advertisements. So, we are dealing with telling or not telling the truth during the campaign. In other words, one leads the campaign by influencing the subconscious, the other leads the campaign by influencing the conscience with clear ideas. I am certain that people don’t listen to the reasonable thoughts heard during your advertisement, but they do listen whenever they hear a happy song,” noted A. Baghdasaryan.
In response to that Shavarsh Kocharyan said that in any case, the campaign without populism has a future.
However it turns out that black PR is not such a terrible thing. In any event, this is the opinion held by Ara Galoyan, economic commentator of the “168-Zham” newspaper. “Black PR is a good thing. Let them talk. There are other, more obvious omissions noticed during the campaign, which we may speak about. For example the political ad of the UNP, which starts this way, “You don’t want to join the army, do you?” You want to study, you will, and healthcare will be free…” See, there is no basis on which we can call these people idiots. Or say, what do you mean? How can healthcare be totally free?” asks Galoyan.
During this discussion, YSU professor, political scientist and PR specialist Tigran Hakobyan also got engaged in the conversation. He informed that in the science of PR there is no such term as “Black PR”. According to him, there are negative pre-election technologies. But PR cannot be black. According to Hakobyan, PR is just information exchange, which can be both negative and positive. “Often they say that a given official is corrupt. And he says that others use black PR against him. That’s not black PR. It’s information, which must be either accepted or denied. And indeed, during the campaign politicians criticize and label each other in different ways. That’s information that cannot be proven,” thinks Hakobyan. Hakobyan thinks that the political ads and overall campaigns are conducted with more quality. Even the selection of colors is done in a more tasteful manner. He agreed with the already stated opinion of Mr. Sahakyan, according to which there are no obstacles for the opposition during the campaign. “Of course there are not. The direct obstacles are substituted with more civilized methods, because government has received new levers of power due to the constitutional referendum. Of course they will not hinder them directly, but no one can guarantee what the results are going to be,” thinks Hakobyan. According to the latter, RPA also has some interesting “classes” – intellectuals, “brand faces”, who constantly communicate with the public, and also its groups of hooligans, who know what their purpose is. “The hooligans will do what they are supposed to do during elections. When saying hooligan I mean not only the street hooligans. There are also hooligans among MPs, heads of communities, who will also do their dirty work…” said Hakobyan to the RPA member present at the discussion. He also added, “Of course the government is more civilized. They don’t stalk oppositionists during rallies and there is no noticeable abuse. Locally minor officials may try to be even more catholic than the Pope, but the technologies that the government implements are more delicate, and the results are quite predictable. It means that the vote results will not match the will of the people. Does it matter how you did it? Through discussions, openly, or rudely? Nothing changes in the result. I don’t claim this but I’m afraid that’s what the picture of elections will be.” As a response Sahakyan mentioned that there are hooligans in the society. “They are everywhere. I don’t exclude that on election day they might do ballot box stuffing during voting. We are working hard to make sure it doesn’t happen,” assured Sahakyan. The problem, according to Sahakyan, is to make sure that on voting day tensions don’t arise that may turn into clashes. He thinks that the main reasons of unfairness are the clashes that may happen at any moment among political parties, in which minor tensions and disagreements might turn into something serious. The guests also spoke about the explosions at the offices of the Prosperous Armenia Party. Galoyan thinks that it was great PR, and the rating of that party has risen by at least 1%. However, Baghdasaryan didn’t agree with this last idea. According to S. Nikoyan, in the PR regard, the image of this powerful party has been damaged as a result of those explosions. Some of the guests agreed that after the explosions, and the failure of Prosperous Armenia’ s candidate to be elected in Armavir, the image of Prosperous Armenia has been slightly harmed.