There is a saying common among the Russians who have a certain inclination for alcohol, which can be translated in roughly the following manner, “I drink not because I love this goddamn vodka, but in order not to lose work experience.” I unintentionally remembered this saying in regard to the election last Sunday, providing that in a few communities, particularly in Gyumri, there was no need to hand out bribes, nonetheless, it seems that it took place contrary to any logic. Admittedly, the “prices” were not as high as in the parliamentary election – the candidates for the seats in the council paid 1-3 thousand AMD, sometimes, they won the hearts of the voters just giving a few kilograms of meat to the family, it is a good thing that they didn’t give a few bottles of beer. The only explanation can be that voters cannot imagine that one can go to a polling station “for free.” This is where the issue of “work experience” arises – if the mechanism of election bribery worked in May and will work in February, what is the point in “taking a break”?
Since the elections for the head of the community are usually held along with the elections for the council, the candidate for village headman or mayor who is, so to say, “doomed to win” tries to form a tame council, in order that no one can limit his power in any way and he spends money on both him personally and his teammates, candidates for council. It certainly doesn’t occur to that victorious candidate that the council is not the National Assembly, there is no problem with political interests here, so thinking and independent people can be useful to solve problems in the community.
In Gyumri, they didn’t manage to form a completely tame council – not everyone will be brewers in that body. There are supporters of the incumbent mayor Vardan Ghukasyan here too, as well as other members of the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) and the Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP) who do not agree for a certain reason that their “joint” candidate should rule in the town. If we are guided by the well-known logic, one can assert that a few stones have been removed from the pyramid of the gang rule by that. Thus, since the incumbent mayor of Gyumri is displeased with the government, he can be the opposition’s ally in the fight for democracy.
However, at the end of the day, these are just details. The most important thing here is not bureaucratic games or the inclination of the powers that be to hand out election bribes regardless of the necessity. Local elections testified once again to the fact that the problem is not with political will, the lack of the opposition’s activity or the absence of election mechanisms. We lack a much more important thing, namely voters, i.e. there is no majority of the citizens who are ready to make their free choice.
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ARAM ABRAHAMYAN
