Ruben Hakobyan hopes that Serzh Sargsyan realizes that
During his meetings with the officials of European organizations in the framework of his working visit to the Kingdom of Belgium recently, President Serzh Sargsyan, talking about the parliamentary election to be held in Armenia, stated that the authorities of the Republic of Armenia were decisive to organize and hold an election in line with the international standards.
However, isn’t this just a promise and do the Armenian authorities led by Serzh Sargsyan really have the political will to organize an election in line with the European standards? Ruben Hakobyan, the deputy chairman of the Heritage Party, said, in response to this question of Aravot, “Serzh Sargsyan has been stating that for quite a long time in different European organizations, also in the EPP, after getting a status of an observer and I assume that those are statements, by which he takes serious responsibility. We know that the ruling force, that so-called coalition, is a background in Armenia to guarantee the rule of one person and that person is always the president of the Republic of Armenia; it has been so during these past 20 years. Certainly, what is actually done in Armenia and what is officially stated, particularly in European organizations, strongly contradict each other and I don’t see any possibility of realizing what Serzh Sargsyan states.” The Heritage Party representative reasoned this observation with exact examples – the heated debates in the parliament in regard to the Electoral Code, the issue with the 41 majoritarian seats, which, according to Ruben Hakobyan, “is political doping for the establishment to have 41 more seats in the parliament,” also the “ruthless war” started by the establishment against the opposition in regard to making public the lists of voters, as result of which the establishment has achieved that the list of voters has not been made public, “because 600-800 thousand voters are absent from Armenia and the main ballot stuffing, the number of which reaches a few thousands, is done at the expense of these absent citizens. Perhaps you would remember that there were polling stations during the last election, where more than 140% of voters participated in the election.” “I would be happy, if I was mistaken, but I don’t see any real political will to hold a fair election. Unfortunately, I must reassert that during the past 18-20 years the establishment’s interest has always strongly contradicted the national and state interest and unfortunately, that contradiction has been traditionally solved in favor of the establishment. Besides, I see that Serzh Sargsyan’s team, members of which talk about elections and with whom I argued on different occasions, has no will to hold a normal election at all,” added Ruben Hakobyan.
Does Serzh Sargsyan realize that he will be responsible to the chairmen of European organizations for his statements? “I hope he realizes and senses the responsibility and I think he must realize it, because he has been assuring Europe and the international community on various occasions and in the most influential international organizations with roughly the same definitions and with the same word sequence that he will hold an exceptional election. What Serzh Sargsyan says abroad – and I think he says it honestly – just differs greatly from the processes that take place in our country,” said the Heritage Party deputy chairman.
Read also
There are many observations that the upcoming general election will be like the election for the Hrazdan mayor, during which the establishment organized no exhibition of force and no ballot stuffing, but the establishment and its candidate won, because what was done to rig the election results was done outside the voting districts. Won’t holding such an election suffice both the West and the Armenian establishment? “Regardless of what is said to the West, it turns out later on that any kind of election suffices the West. Our tragedy is that we sometimes think that the West will come and rescue us. On the contrary, we must realize one thing – the West has always been able to use our illegitimacy, the level of our elections and has been able to impose its interest on us, using the quality of elections. Therefore, let us not emphasize too much that the West will come and say this or do that. I take it easy and make light of it. But there is another thing – I think the society has already crossed the limits of forgiving a rigger and the establishment has run out of possibilities to make mistakes,” emphasized R. Hakobyan.
However, the reality is that they have been saying for 15 years that the establishment has crossed the limits of rigging and the society will not forgive anymore, but the establishment has been finding the resource of rigging and remaining unpunished for 15 years, which the election in Hrazdan also testified to. “In my assessment, regardless of what results were registered and even if the official results are correct, the establishment suffered a defeat in the Hrazdan election, the administrative resource won a victory and only it. The issue here is not numbers. If the establishment is preparing for the election with this resource, I don’t think it will win a victory. Secondly, during the past 20 years our state has been bearing a heavy burden, a huge burden. And that burden is very heavy now – it is not a 4-year-old or 8-year-old, but 22-year-old burden that is really sinking the ship that Serzh Sargsyan is steering today and it turns out that he will be responsible for not only the past 4 or 8 years, but all 22 years. The state of emergency has been in our country during this period, these hardest social conditions are the result of the policy pursued in recent years and given all this I say that the establishment has no right to make a mistake anymore and that the people have run out of the reserve of forgiveness during these past 22 years. I suppose Serzh Sargsyan realizes that, if he doesn’t, it is not good. I also think that he realizes, nonetheless, that this is a landmark, historic election,” stated the representative of the Heritage Party.
NAIRA MAMIKONYAN
