When the Legal Regime of the State of Emergency bill was discussed in the parliament of the Republic of Armenia before the election, as opposed to the claims of the parliamentary and extra-parliamentary opposition that this bill aimed at preventing post-election processes and preparing for new “March 1s,” also legally using the army to solve internal problems, the representatives of the government, even at the level of the Minister of Justice and the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia stated that there would be no post-election processes, not to mention “March 1s,” after the National Assembly election. It turns out that these predictions, at least in case of this election, were accurate, because this election was organized with professional and “civilized” violations such as there had been during the election for mayor in Hrazdan. www.aravot.am asked Ruben Mehrabyan, an expert of the Center for Political and International Studies, whether it was possible that the National Assembly election, which was the copy of the Hrazdan election, might become an “exemplar” for the presidential election to take place next year. “It will depend on the developments that will have taken place before that election,” noted the expert. As for what developments there might be, the political scientist enumerated, “From no developments to such rapid developments, as a result of which we will have a square full of a great number of people. Not only don’t I rule it out, but I also see the potential of that. However, the society will have to do huge work for that and one should define those possible developments. The role of everyone – politicians, the press, the society – is important here.”
According to Ruben Mehrabyan, the National Assembly election resulted in a situation, where there is no extra-parliamentary opposition in Armenia. “However, Aram Sargsyan, the leader of the Republic Party, has aspirations to form an extra-parliamentary opposition, which he also voiced, saying that he leaves to join the people gathering in the streets. How it will manifest itself depends on the future developments. It is natural that there is potential for that, because even the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) wanted changes with its main motto. Now the society can and should demand from the RPA, ‘Dear friends, now you have signed a contract with the society, by which that society has believed you that you will change. Well, now you go and change.’ The society should show what must be changed. There are a lot of things even on the surface that should be changed and be thrown away.”
According to him, instead of changing something in the country, the RPA takes the path of forming a coalition, which provides for erasing responsibility, making it vague and it will result in a situation, in which nothing will be changed, all the same, and the society may take to the streets again.
Naira MAMIKONYAN
