The pre-election promises of the parliamentary parties and the reality
The elections are approaching and the parties will soon start to present what they will do in the rural areas, how they will take away the economy from the oligarchs immediately and give it to the small and medium enterprises, how many 100-percent growth they will guarantee, how they will eradicate the corruption etc. In a nutshell, promises that have always been made and not kept. If the parliamentary parties had proved to be conjurers, we would have had an advancing Armenia; we would have built a prosperous country, the rule of law or at least have remembered in the past 5 years who was “our old friend” who had promised tangible growth in his pre-election brochure. So the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) promised that the social conditions in the rural areas should have been substantially improved, there should have been exceptionally good roads, public transport, 24-hour drinking water and gas supply. The old people should have had well-to-do old age, the youth should have been supported while entering the new life, and the working class should have been offered an opportunity of respectable life on their revenues. Certainly, if an RPA member is asked why they haven’t guaranteed our old people well-to-do old age, he will state their main justification – global financial crisis. As the specialists expect the second wave of crisis in the short-run, it is not ruled out that the promises that will remained on paper after the upcoming election will be explained by those waves.
The Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) assumed that the minimum wage in 2008 should have been 50 thousand AMD, meanwhile it is only 32.500 AMD today, the minimum pension should have increased from 4250 AMD up to 30 thousand AMD, meanwhile it is 10.800 AMD today. The average pension, according to the ARF program, should have increased from 13.000 up to 50.000 AMD. But according to the statistics of the statistical service, it is 27.107 AMD.
The Heritage Party was speaking of $2 billion shadow economy – they should have raised the wages by 20 thousand AMD through diminishing that economy, added 10000-20000 AMD to social benefit, increased the bottom margin of pensions up to 30000 AMD. As I have already mentioned, the minimum pension is 10.800 AMD in our country, the benefits have increased by 9350 AMD compared to 2007. The Heritage Party’s promise that the average monthly wage in Armenia should be 80-100 thousand AMD in 2012 has even exceeded – it has been 114.060 AMD in 2011.
The Rule of Law Party (RLP) mentioned in its pre-election program that there should be substantial financial support for encouraging large-families and increasing birth rate. That substantial is 35 thousand-AMD lump sum for first and second child that is spent on diapers within 1-2 months. ARF has been more generous in this regard, promising to give 200.000 AMD for the first and second child, 2 million AMD for the third child and 2.5 million AMD for the third one.
The Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP) should have increased the wages “in accordance with inflation”, however as the crisis occurred, the inflation went up, but the salaries remained nearly as they had been. PAP also mentioned that unemployment benefit would tangibly increase. That so-called “tangible” was 5500 AMD, now the unemployment benefit is 16.915 AMD, whereas in 2007 it was 11.393.
The people who voted for PAP expected that the pension would be not less than the minimum basket of goods and we should have jointly built a prosperous country in that way. Meanwhile the minimum basket of goods is 53.804 AMD and the pension starts from 10 thousand AMD.
HRIPSIME JEBEJYAN
