So far no one else than ARF’s Hrant Margaryan has given the best definition to the quality of parliamentary elections. “The elections were not to reflect the wish of people, but to reflect how many votes have been bought,” said Margaryan to radio Liberty. The other members of the united headquarter – the ANC and PA – are keeping silence. The PA is kind of offended as they wanted more votes but were not allowed to collect their votes. Their strategy seems to be weird because during the elections in 2007 they received 15.13%. However, during these elections they received almost twice more – 30.20%. Could they get more? Maybe, but if they gave more electoral bribe than the RPA. But in the party headed by Gagik Tsarukyan they wait for Minevra’s owl to fly in to bring the wisdom. As for the ANC, their Minevra’s owl will come after midnight, during their rally. We wonder how the opposition leaders will explain the fact of giving so many votes to one of the ruling coalition parties. Of course the ANC’s orators will tackle the issue of electoral bribe and will say what the influence was. The ANC was reporting on any electoral bribe on the part of the PA in a timely manner. However, nobody spoke about the bribe stream on the part of the Legal State party. By the way, neither of my colleagues has written n social networks that they had been able to find anyone who would confess the fact of having taken bribe from the LS. On May 5 my colleague Lusine Margaryan and I took a taxi and the driver was in a very good mood.
– Have you taken your electoral bribe yet? It is so good; I just received a call and they told me that I could go and take 75.000 drams. I will take it in the morning. There are five people in my family. So it means that each of us will receive 15.000 drams.
– Which party is offering that bribe?
– The Republican party. The Prosperous Armenia is offering 10.000 drams. I will take from the RPA, but I may vote for the PA; it’s been a long time we are supporting the PA. Heh, they have turned us into traders.
The vision of 75.000 drams was making the drivers not to be so strict and rude in his ideas. The driver was from Nor Hachn village community. He said that parties were giving electoral bribe in Aparan as well. The mentioned two parties are not the only ones that were giving bribes. The ANC has played a role in this too. In 2007, after the elections the LS received 7% as a part of the opposition. However, later one day before the presidential election 2008 Artur Baghdasaryan became pro-government in one day. One day could be enough for the PA too to get the wisdom brought by Minevra’s owl. A part of the Legal State’s constituency were forced out after their leader joined the government, so the ANC’s tactics made it possible to recruit them. However, the blackmailing of the Legal State’s leader was followed by weakening of the positions of the ANC’s leader. There were no massive ballots stuffing, which would change the outcomes of elections. This gave a reason to the head of the Free Society Institute organization to make the following announcement: “There have not been such quality elections in the history of Armenia. Those fully comply with European standards.”
At least in case of the proportional elections there was no need for ballot stuffing because people took money and honestly gave their votes to the candidates having given them the money. The ANC is acting like a fortune teller by predicting processes in advance. Can anyone from the ANC say what is the difference from an RPA oligarch and PA oligarch? How can an opposition party support a part of the government’s coalition, thus losing a lot of votes and not to stay behind everyone? Hardly Levon Ter-Petrosyan, who was giving interview with Vartan Oskanyan, would drop his mandate.
The Heritage party had a problem with good campaign too. This party made such a non-understandable list of candidates that the number of their supporters stayed the same after five years of intensive work. The ARF’s positions have gone back because in 2007 they received 13.16%, and this time they received 5.73%.
The happy RPA is behind all these numbers. The RPA and PA can smile to all other parties that will be in the parliament meaning that it was not about them.
Now the time is starting when they will collect the money they have spent, and plus high interest rates. Obviously they forgot to tell voters about this before the election…