According to the specialist on political and electoral technologies, the latest rally of the ANC was a demonstration of strength and an opportunity to affect the public mood
Specialist on political and electoral technologies Armen Badalyan, referring to the August 2 rally of the Armenian National Congress, said during a conversation with “Aravot” that he had not paid much attention to the content of the speeches made at the rally, although nothing new had been said there, according to Badalyan. For the latter the rally is worth attention from the viewpoint of political technologies, messages sent to the society and the existing mood. “The content of the speeches made at the rally was not important, because I realized that the aim of the rally was different, it was an inspection for the ANC. I have gotten the answers to the questions interesting me”, said A. Badalyan, adding that the Congress had passed that inspection. Firstly he reaffirmed that nobody had expected that so many people would attend the latest rally of the ANC. In response to our remark that this rally was less attended than the previous ones, Badalyan said, “It was so at the beginning, when it was hot, but when it became cooler, the number of people fairly increased. Take also into account that it was August 2, quite hot weather, a working day, many people, including people from Congress have left for holidays, and the ANC on the other hand did not spread a total propaganda. Thrice the number of the participants of the rally is outside the country. The people, with whom I had a conversation, were saying that there were expectations that only half of the gathered would come to the rally, nevertheless they came. This showed that this willingness to struggle among the ANC electorate had not extinguished. Many people said that the dialogue process affected the ANC rating negatively and it was losing its electorate. However, the latest rally, taking into account the unfavorable conditions I have mentioned, was fairly crowded and if the works are done in the right direction in autumn, it will give positive results and the number of rally participants will increase manifold. This was the inspection for the ANC and not what the speechmakers were saying.” According to Badalyan, the second main conclusion that he has made is that the two parties, the ARF and the Heritage Party, that criticize the dialogue and state that the ANC rating is decreasing, were not right. “And the rally showed that those two forces not only have no rating among the ANC electorate, but also are not popular, despite their attitude toward the actions of the Congress. Moreover, according to the specialist, the criticism of the ARF and the Heritage Party has been targeting only one side of the negotiators, the ANC, and for some reason has not also been criticizing the coalition instead. On one side of the negotiators there is also the RLP that does not actually exist as a party, has no weight and had no right of becoming a side of negotiations, is there not?, expressed a thought Badalyan.
According to him, the next conclusion from the ANC rally is that the ANC, continuously demanding the resignation of the government and pre-term elections since 2008 that was no success and now it is unknown whether they will succeed in October, but the latest rally of the ANC showed that the society has already realized and it is not – I am not talking about the small part that demands “now” – important for them, when that change of government is going to take place, but it is important that it will necessarily take place. Certainly, it is not a result of the public opinion poll, it is just a notion. If a change of government takes place, good, if not, the last fight will be in March and after that there will be a few months left before the presidential elections that will be held in February 2012 and it is possible to maintain the willingness to struggle among the society, do a “raskrutka” (hype up) and use it this time during the 2012 election.
The present activity and the latest rally of the ANC is also a demonstration of strength during the negotiation process. It made clear for the government coalition that if it can gather so many people during the summer heat, then in autumn it can urge manifold dense masses to take the streets.
Certainly, A. Badalyan mentioned for justice’ sake that the latest rally of the Congress, certainly, was of PR significance and the speeches about being ready for the pre-term election etc. encouraging the gathered in the Freedom Square testify to that.