Today head of the Heritage faction Styopa Safaryan, speaking of eliminating the majority election system at “Post Scriptum” club, said, “It doesn’t matter whom they propose whether it is Charles Aznavour or Kim Kardashian, the person who gives more money will be elected.”
Mr. Safaryan noted during a conversation with Aravot.am that he had made that allegory to show that basically no value is respected in case of majority election system as much as bribe, which is offered by candidates for MP to poor people, “I will never forget that in Talin where we proposed Raffi Hovhannisyan’s candidacy, no matter how much he was loved by residents of Talin, they were saying ‘please, leave this process and we will get what we ought to’. It had become means for earning at least one-day living for their families, one should have seen what lines there were outside electoral districts, how noisily and fussily they voted, in order to prove that they had participated and get the bribe they had been promised. Therefore, no matter how famous the politician proposed for MP through majority election system is, if that candidate is approved by the authorities and bribe people, that candidate will win, regardless of who is his rival. Because during this election one cannot attract a hungry man with one’s ideas, one’s program, the future one proposed, when that man is burdened with real problems.”
Mr. Safaryan also underlined that given the fact that our people have a saying “half a loaf is better than no bread”, certainly, they would not pay attention to promises of bright future. As for the argument of the authorities that MPs elected through the majority election system raise the issues concerning the population, Mr. Safaryan observed, “I remember very few cases when MPs elected through the majority election system raised urgent issues of any region in the National Assembly. There are MPs that may ask the Cabinet questions about irrigation, household and nothing more. Those problems should be raised by the governor. They should not come and demand from the Cabinet to asphalt some territory and establish irrigation network within 5 years, it is not the issue to be solved at the National Assembly and it is not its function.”
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