“It is clear that political bargaining reached a deadlock and there was no alternative to that outcome. However, the future must show what results the PAP, which has acted so far, having the administrative resource, will reach, acting without that resource. I wish good luck in that issues and am ready to contribute and help as a political scientist and as the president of the Union of Political Scientists,” Hmayak Hovhannisyan, no. 9 on the PAP list for proportional representation, said in response to a question of www.aravot.am why he had made an application of withdrawing his candidacy, whereas the events had developed in the way he preferred, the PAP had rejected the coalition government.
The political scientist explains his candidacy withdrawal also by the upcoming presidential election, “As a political scientist, as the president of the Union of Political Scientists, I must try to analyze all that impartially, independently and in an unbiased manner. Since presidential elections are much more important in our country than parliamentary elections, I cannot be constrained in my explanations and approaches by the party or team opinion.”
In response to a question what was the point in being on the PAP list, then submitting an application of candidacy withdrawal, since all that had been clear when he had been included in the PAP list for proportional representation already, Hmayak Hovhannisyan basically didn’t answer. He started saying again that the current situation offered few opportunities for dynamic political processes inside the parliament and the decision-maker was, all the same, the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) with its absolute majority, that regardless of everything, the future honest activities of the PAP could create conditions for overcoming the stagnation and the time would tell how efficient those opportunities would be used etc.
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The political scientist advises the PAP, however, to take into consideration the experience of the Rule of Law Party (RLP) and the People’s Party of Armenia, which left
coalitions at the time and appeared under certain conditions, being deprived of the administrative resource.
Hmayak Hovhannisyan is convinced that Serzh Sargyan deliberately deadlocked the negotiations with his tough stance on the PAP’s offer to change the Prime Minister, he provoked the PAP to take that step, in order to deprive the PAP of the administrative resource before the presidential election and make it impossible for the PAP to use a part of the administrative resource.
The political scientist thinks that during the parliamentary election, the PAP, using the administrative resource, nonetheless, established contacts with fundamentalist opposition, it couldn’t help but raise doubts in Serzh Sargsyan’s mind that the PAP could do the same thing during the presidential election too. In response to a question of www.aravot.am whether, in his opinion, the move of the PAP made yesterday was, nonetheless, honest, whether it was the only way out of the deadlock, Hmayak Hovhannisyan said, “If we consider that this statement was made not after the election, but after a series of meetings and contacts with members of the RPA… I.e. the PAP kept the door open from the beginning for discussing the possibility of the coalition format, but it made such a statement after a few stages of those discussions. One can assume that yes, those offers, which were made to the PAP during those contacts, were not accepted. And that tough stance of the RPA led to such an outcome.”
Hmayak Hovhannisyan is also skeptical about the fact that there is no mention about the presidential election in Gagik Tsarukyan’s statement made yesterday. He thinks that it would have been logical, if the statement had mentioned that the PAP would participate in the 2013 election with its own candidate. And since the main question is open, the political scientist doesn’t rule out that along with other options, the PAP will not participate with its own candidate and will endorse the RPA candidate.
Nelly GRIGORYAN
