No choice or hope for Armenia

As Armenia prepares for parliamentary elections it does so without any illusions. These elections will offer nothing new in Armenian residents' lives.

Eight political parties and one party bloc - the Republican Party of Armenia, the Prosperous Armenia party, Armenian National Congress (party bloc), the Armenian Revolutionary Federation Dashnaktsutiun, Orinats Erkir, Rule of Law, Heritage (a single list with a party of Free Democrats), the Democratic Party, the Communist Party and the United Armenians party will participate in the parliamentary elections in Armenia.

In fact, there could be 48, rather than eight, but nothing would change. The political forces that are really interested in radical changes in Armenia's socio-political system do not participate in parliamentary elections. They are not allowed to deal with any public activity and blow their cover in the presence of voters.

Armenian authorities and opposition worked hard to create the appearance of a democratic political system for the last year and a half. They even had several rounds of negotiations to establish a dialogue, but no concrete result was achieved.

The meetings were initially meaningless, by taking diametrically opposed positions. It is difficult to agree on a common approach to the problems within the country. However, the warring parties pretended that work was in full swing and needed continuation.

The opposition was holding protest action and a show by detaining the opposition members to win the people's support, while the authorities gathered their thoughts and forces before the parliamentary elections by entering into a gentleman's agreement with the opposition.

Despite the negotiations between authorities and opposition having no effect on the solution of socio-economic problems in the country, Yerevan's openness towards the opposition creates a positive image of the authorities to the Western world which was badly tarnished by the events of March 2008. This fixed its status as one of a non-democratic state.

Official Yerevan continues doing everything to create the appearance of democratic elections in the country. The Armenian Central Election Commission registered the first international observers for the elections to the National Assembly on May 6.

According to the data posted on the CEC official website, the observation mission of the
OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights includes 39 observers.

Armenia's entire political system today rests on oligarchs. One naively believes that the people who run the show in the country will ask the people's opinion about the puppets, which carry out their orders in the Armenian legislative body. Despite the efforts of the West, the "salaries" from oligarchs are more important for the Armenian authorities than the recognition of elections as democratic.

Although EU officials never tire of repeating that the holding of free and fair elections on May 6 will give a strong impetus to Armenia's European integration, rumors abound that Brussels has promised Yerevan big investments and a donor conference in case of fair elections. It is obvious that oligarchs give more.

Although, it may be paradoxically assumed that there will be less violations than expected. The reason is that it is all the same for people for whom to vote, rather than fair elections. One day, tens of thousands of people have already gone to the streets to protest against the system and advocating for changes. Alas, they were cruelly deceived by the opposition and the authorities. They can simply ignore the elections not to vote for people whom they do not trust.

The Armenian people tired to survive in the country which slowly but surely reaches to a complete collapse. The army colleagues kill each other in the country every month. The national currency loses a few points at the slightest fluctuation of the dollar. The authorities do not think about their future by fighting for their "magnificent" past.


Elmira Tariverdiyeva /Trend/