According to Ararat Mkrtchyan, a former Minister of Healthcare, the election program of Hrant Bagratyan, the leader of the Freedom Party and a candidate for president who has suspended his membership of the Armenian National Congress (ANC), “is a high-quality program.”
The former minister cannot recall a similar program written by any candidate or party in the history of the independent Republic of Armenia. “Bagratyan’s program stands out for its clarity, mentioning the most important directions and targets. All sections and directions are logically connected, which I think is very important. Another important factor; the main promises are measurable. I mean if the candidate is elected, the public cannot say tomorrow or the day after tomorrow that he hasn’t reached the index he mentioned in his program. So the program is clear and is not pretentious. They are measurable promises,” our interlocutor says.
As for the healthcare part of the program, the former Minister of Healthcare notes that the program is called an economic program and asserts that two important provisions regarding health economics are stipulated. “There is a clear promise to raise the total health expenditure as a percentage of GDP to 5%-5.5%; the idea of government procurement through a competition is put forward. From the economic perspective, these two points, which are mainly stipulated in the program, certainly don’t include all healthcare issues, but they mention very important directions from the perspective of health economics.”
Hrant Bagratyan had stated in an interview given to Radio Liberty on Facebook: “I think that this presidential election should prioritize the economy. There is no politics for me; there is economics. Politics is about slogans; economics is about calculations, knowledge.” Ararat Mkrtchyan doesn’t fully share the approach of his comrade-in-arms, since he thinks that given the presence of presidential and parliamentary institutions, a Cabinet and a Prime Minister, the President appears as mostly political figure. If the system of government is changed, our interlocutor will fully share Hrant Bagratyan’s approach. In response to a question of www.aravot.am whether he would support Hrant Bagratyan or would follow the example of ANC members who criticized their – one could say – already
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former comrade-in-arms, Ararat Mkrtchyan said: “I support ideas, and the ideas put forward in Bagratyan’s program are comprehensible and acceptable for me. I made my own modest contribution to discussing ‘100 Steps’ and writing the healthcare program that stems from it. From the moral and political perspective, I certainly should support Mr. Bagratyan, if necessary, if there is a need.”
Nelly GRIGORYAN
