“I would like to note an interesting fact. Majoritarian and proportional electoral systems were discussed and some of our respectful oppositionists said that majoritarian elections are very important for Armenia. And who are supposed to call our poor people, when they have any problem” –announced Vahan Hovhannisyan, the leader of “Dashnaktsutyun” faction, speaking about the bills currently being discussed at the National Assembly. “I would like to present a bit of statistics. There are 41 MPs elected by majoritarian elections, 29 of which have never said a word since they were elected, and they have been elected in several convocations of Parliament. They have never asked any questions, have never applied by a written form, and have never made either any statements or speech on an issue that directly concerns their so called voters. The seven of them are comparatively more active, the names of which are probably known to you. The five of them have said a few words. For example they asked about a school roof or a water pipe in a certain village… etc. Now let’s observe the productivity of these 41 MPs. By what must be conditioned the people’s belief in them? By the number of words they have pronounced? If so, then they do not exist in the Parliamentary life at all”, – said Vahan Hovhannisyan. Speaking about Electoral Code and elections, V. Hovhannisyan reffered to dead pensioners. According to him, those thousands of dead people, who received pensions, participated in elections as well. “The respectful Prime Minister spoke about sending the documents concerning the “false” pensioners to the Prosecutor’s Office. He spoke about the group dealing with those falsifications that have the lists of “false” pensioners. And these cases must really be sent to the Prosecutor’s Office. But it’s clear that those voters’ lists have been operable in other issues as well. Do you remember the case when the ones removed from the social security system, were making a demonstration in front of the government building and they were surprised about what was going on, since as they stated, they collected so many votes for Republican Party. What votes were those? Those were the votes of dead pensioners. The thing that is not acceptable is that the majorities in Armenia were conquered in this way. And I wonder if the Prosecutor’s Office will really have enough courage to investigate those cases up to the end, if the Prime Minister really sends them to the Prosecutor’s Office. It is necessary to find out not only how the dead received pensions, but how they voted as well. And in my opinion it won’t be difficult to do that, for people are almost ready to testify” –Vahan Hovhannisyan added. Vahan Hovhannisyan responded to a few questions as well.
– President Serzh Sargsyan’s and Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan’s meetings with various officials, their recommendations promises, visits to rural areas don’t have any result in economical and social sense. At the end of last year the president made a number of same statements, even made changes, however their impact is not felt yet. The situation doesn’t improve in any sphere.
– It does not improve, that’s why we consider that change of government is a necessity. If it changed our position would be changed as well. But I do agree that the situation doesn’t become easier, since the government doesn’t change its course.
– But who is the responsible for global changes? The government or the President? The government implements President’s program and no member of the government ever misses the chance to repeat that something is done by the recommendation of the President.
– The government in Armenia is a common system. The ones that obediently press the button accepting the laws supporting this course, they are to be blame to the same extent. I don’t want to make any separations now. In one case a minister is guiltier, in another case the President is guiltier, but why do we have to separate these cases? For example when it concerns Armenian-Turkish relations, it is more than clear that the there is no sense to blame the ministers of agriculture or social security, but in the first place the minister of foreign affairs, on whose reports the President’s policy was formed, which was wrong. But it is a local case. When it comes to the economic and social issues, the number of responsible increases abruptly.
– In the opposition field ANC presents various demands to the government on holding of snap elections, change of government etc. The same does the founder of “Heritage” party Raffi Hovhanissyan taking an extreme step. The “Heritage” faction boycotted NA sessions. Meanwhile, considering itself opposition, why has ARF adopted such a mild position? It doesn’t present such strict demands and doesn’t organize mass actions to present its demands.
– It is not a mild position, it is a business position. We are realistic, we realize that parties, political entities, who want to see changes during their political career, they may be wrong as well. We very well understand that the changes we want to carry out I might not see myself, but I must do my best to make them inevitably take place. There are no guarantees that they will achieve any changes by rallies and shocking actions. They may achieve something worse: the government may be taken by a power that will make us regret.