The reason why the pre-election rallies of the ruling parties are relatively more crowded is obvious – the government has political leverage to make workers of the state institutions come to those meetings, it also has enough money to guarantee the “masses” by buses, if necessary. It is obvious that no one admires the government to come for no reason, “spontaneously.” When few people come to the same pre-election meetings that are organized by the opposition, the explanations may be different. Explanation no. 1: everyone has emigrated. By the way, about the numbers of emigration – the government and parties propagandizing its ideas claim that one and a half million people left Armenia in 1991-1998 (“in the Pan-Armenian National Movement (PANM) times”). The PANM and the forces supporting it, on the other hand, claim that one and a half million people have left Armenia in 1998-2012. If we subtract the sum of those two numbers from the “Communist” 3 million Armenians, it will be a mystery who lives in Armenia now. I think that if the reason that rallies are not crowded is the emigration, then it is not the main reason. Explanation no. 2: people are intimidated, are terrorized, in order that they may not come to meet with the opposition. It is quite possible. However, let us assess the situation rationally – are people more intimidated today, than in 2007-2008? Why were the opposition rallies more crowded at the time? Perhaps a partial answer to that is given by explanation no. 3: people do not attach importance to the parliamentary election as much as to the presidential election. It is there too – our people are convinced that everyone is decided by the “king”; if the president wills, he will create thousands of jobs, if he wishes, he will eliminate the corruption and if he orders, the salaries and pensions will rise. There is also the 4th explanation that shouldn’t be ignored – people are tired, they are disappointed and don’t believe anyone. One should leave them alone for some time and don’t barrage them with words. 4 years are certainly enough time to take such a break. However, these past 4 years have been full of events and, accordingly, words – March 1 killings, prisoners of conscience, protests etc. That is the reason why it is essential that this one year before the presidential election is peaceful – it doesn’t matter who MPs and the President will be, but it is important that the results of the elections are acceptable for the society and there is relative “silence” in 2013-2017.
There is the 5th reason why people don’t come to rallies: parties talk very much, but they are not honest and their insincerity and hypocrisy cannot be concealed from the people. However, certainly, no political force will agree with this observation.
ARAM ABRAHAMYAN
