Today, Hovsep Khurshudyan, the press secretary of the Heritage Party, talking about the withdrawal of candidacies by Manuk Vardanyan, the Minister of Transport and Communication, and Mher Hambardzumyan, the founder of the Vegetable Kingdom Production Association, nominated by the Rule of Law Party (RLP) for majoritarian representation during a conversation with www.aravot.am, said, “I am sorry for the RLP, a party can appear in such a powerless condition. The Heritage Party is ensured from such problems insofar as we never involve any oligarchs, but it causes other problems that we always find ourselves in a financially hard condition. Our conditions of competition are worse than that of the ruling parties also in the financial sense, it refers to every oppositionist. In Armenia, unfortunately, political institutions function not under civilized conditions. Everybody has that problem of leaving the party at any moment, it is a very serious problem. We have to mature political institutions, in order that a party may not face such a problem. I don’t want to intrude into the internal affairs of the RLP, but if one considers the whole picture, the level of political institutions is very low. And it is connected also with the culture of relations inside parties that exists on the political stage.”
According to H. Khurshudyan, one should contribute to parties’ maturing at the state level, “Every MP should have a separate office with its workers, parties should be provided with minimum financial means by the state, in order that they may not depend on oligarchs. In order that they may not be sent to enter that party today and then be ordered to leave the same party. Parties should not depend on such problems, parties are the foundation of the state, regardless of which party is the subject matter today, a ruling or an opposition party.”
Hovsep Khurshudyan is convinced that at least those parties that are mature and have confirmed their viability – i.e. have crossed the 3-percent margin – it is a sufficient index, in order that the state may start to financially support and take care of the minimum expenses of the given party, “It will contribute to the party’s ability to have subsidiaries and never pin its hopes on oligarchs or the finance of the big business.”
Hripsime JEBEJYAN
