According to the preliminary results of parliamentary elections of Azerbaijan taken place on Sunday the party led by the President of that country Ilham Aliyev – Yeni Azerbaijan, had a “succumbing” victory. This ruling party will receive 70 of the 125 seats of Mili Mejlis. Moreover, the majority of the elected MPs of Yeni Azerbaijan were elected both via proportional list and majoritarian system. The OSCE monitoring mission has already estimated the parliamentary elections “insufficiently democratic and that in general those didn’t conform to the European standards.” At the first sight this is a quite familiar situation. At least the last 2-3 parliaments of Armenia were convened with the same principle and methods. And today, even though quite enough time is left prior to the parliamentary elections of Armenia the elections of Mili Mejlis of Azerbaijan may have ambiguous importance to us. If it’s possible to conduct more quality elections (theoretically everything is possible), which is extremely important for providing international recognition for the NKR. Otherwise, Armenia will occupy its place next time Azerbaijan with the same “article” of parliamentary election rigging. Armenia will appear in a very tough situation, having to deal with powerful Azerbaijan with stronger economy. And this will become even tougher without having a “democracy card,” which till 1998 was considered one of the main privileges of Armenia during the NKR negotiations. Having judged from the current governmental circles and their statements, the second version is much more possible. It is very hard to find among the ruling Republicans of Armenia, who wouldn’t say that the RPA is going to make the majority in the next cycle of the parliamentary race.
