Election bribes reached the minimum size and scale in the latest presidential election, not only because Ter-Petrossian and Tsarukyan didn’t announce their candidacies, but also mainly because Serzh Sargsyan and the Republicans did not estimate Raffi Hovhannisyan’s chances properly. It is possible that the Republicans will treat Raffi Hovhannisyan’s and the Heritage Party’s competition quite seriously in the mayoral election and will make a mistake again. I don’t possess Aharon Adibekyan’s abilities, but I venture to assume that a big part of the real votes won by Raffi Hovhannisyan in the presidential election will be won over by the Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP), the Armenian National Congress (ANC), and the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF). And since the Heritage Party will nonetheless win some part of the opposition votes, and since the Rule of Law Party (RLP) will also win a certain percentage, the Yerevan mayoral election will not just be competitive, but too competitive. And however much Taron Margaryan is advertised and praised, it will be very hard for Taron and the Republicans to ensure the desirable and necessary percentage, it is more than obvious that the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) will spend twice or thrice as much money on the Yerevan mayoral election as it saved in the presidential election. And since the PAP didn’t spent money on the presidential election at all, the PAP will surely spend the maximum amount of money too. Although both of them claim that they will not hand out election bribes, even if we trust both of them limitlessly, we are convinced that there will be asphalt and other indirect forms of election bribery, and there will be urban equipment and other stuff instead of tractors and agricultural machinery. However, no matter how much we would like to believe that only indirect forms of election bribery will be crucial, past experience, in particular our experience, has proved to us, in particular the elected, that the role and significance of election bribes in cash haven’t decreased; on the contrary, they have increased. Although, many people claim that the size of election bribes was significantly smaller in the latest election, and although many people also claim that those who received election bribes in the latest election turned out and voted for the opposite side, every one of us understands that this is only about the bills with Tumanyan’s face on them. Although our people love Tumanyan very much, they prefer Isahakyan and Saryan on election days, and in case of Ishakyan and especially Saryan, they turn out and
honestly vote for the very briber, and they will do so this very time, not just because the people got convinced after the latest election that it didn’t matter at all whom they voted for, but also because voters also saw and got convinced that the people whom they had really elected struggled for the votes they had gotten inconsistently. Therefore, no matter how much certain people convince us that the electoral fraud will be prevented this time, we cannot share that optimism, at least, as far as election bribery is concerned. Those people who have always handed out election bribes will hand them out. Furthermore, they will hand out more than they have done before, because the Yerevan mayoral election is really very important. God grant our assumptions will be wrong.
Oskan TARONTSI
