The opposition political powers of Armenia believe that if the electoral system is transformed to fully proportional system of elections, there will be less electoral violation and falsification. Or, these 41 MPs that are the loyalists of the authorities and business representatives will not be in the parliament anymore. This means that the mechanism of elections does not work in a duly manner because of the law. There must be a small change. The assertion of the opposition is not justified well, meanwhile the reaction of the government is not understandable either. In fact, it is an attempt to create an imitation of a conflict concerning an issue that in fact does not have any influence on elections in Armenia. Such discussions might be useful maybe before the elections in 1995-96. In fact it doesn’t make much difference if the authorities violate with 100% proportional system of elections or majoritarian.
The ARF, Heritage, ANC and PA parties have the same opinion concerning this issue and they say that it will help to elect only politically motivated people in the parliament. However, the political sector consists of the same political powers, or, what is more correct, the same people who are travelling from one party to another. By rejecting the majoritarian system of elections they are creating a barrier for those who don’t have enough money and will to be included in pre-election lists but can work well in the parliament. This also limits the choice of voters because they will have to elect between bad powers. Otherwise, their only choice can be boycotting elections. Is there possibility that by doing so professionals will not have a chance to be elected under the majoritarian system and as a result of competition the votes will be taken by businessmen? This is not a shortcoming that stems out of the electoral law though.
If we refuse the majoritarian system of election, it means that the government thinks that voters are stupid and not able to make an independent choice or are corrupt. The issue of being corrupt cannot be solved with the electoral law and in order to cope with this problem there must be other tools.
As we know, during elections parties fail to fight against the violations of the pro-government parties effectively. However, every single victory in any precinct in favor of a party’s candidate is the victory of the entire political power behind that candidate. In order to justify the assertion about 100% proportional system, these powers refer to the announcement of the PA. Being a pro-government political power from outside, and opposition inside, this political power agrees to reject the majoritarian system of elections. In case of the PA it doesn’t make much difference if the elections are majoritarian or proportional; what matters is the name of the person who is the first one in the list. Voters don’t care about the other names after the name of the first person in the list of the PA party. By saying Prosperous Armenia voters associate the name with the name of one person only. This is as dangerous as an oligarch nominated under the majoritarian system. The same thing works for the RPA, for which even the name of the first person doesn’t make much difference; if it is the RPA party, they are in because the most important thing is the position of the party leader, who is the president of the country. In case of the ARF, voters don’t care about the names of the members in the list. People give their votes to the ARF for its name.
Fir the largest opposition power ANC the majoritarian system should be an opportunity to fight and win in several directions. To accept the fact that in case of majoritarian system of elections whatever happens the pro-government powers will win the elections is a loss already.
Let’s remember the mayoral elections on May 31, 2009. This was a 100% proportional election. However, the election was falsified in the same manner as any local government, national and parliamentary elections.
Political parties ignore one thing when talking about violations; they must speak about their own honesty too. All political powers are opposition till the elections, and after the elections it turns out that all of them have been with the authorities with their mind and spirit. It is what usually happens to the PA, ARF and legal State parties. The best example is the coalition that was formed following the elections.
Following the presidential election the ANC, that was the only dominating power in the opposition, has been trying to prove that this is the only opposition in the country. During this time from time to time they offered the government to cooperate. Now the ANC is ready to cooperate with the PA jointly fight for fair elections. The fact that the political powers and politicians are not fair and honest in their actions is the main reason why 41 fat and rich oligarchs are elected in the parliament as a result of parliamentary elections. In this case the electoral law has nothing to do with it.