As observed by human rights activist Avetik Ishkhanyan, there is no ideological struggle in Armenia, there is no choice, there is voting. “Show me the ideological difference and what ideological struggle is carried out. There is a pro-Russian and pro-Western difference which I consider artificial because pre-Western is not jumping from one master to another… the fight is going on to own the corruption leverages, even by the section allocated for the oppositions, the fight will go on for the one-third of the seats because it is convenient to be an opposition, even get angry and then go to different places and solve some issues,” said the human right activist at the “Hayeli” club.
Public activist Azat Arshakyan recalled that there was a political competition in the nineties during the Supreme Council elections although according to him, now, the newly forming parliament will be more competitive than the existing one, “This campaign will be better, I am an optimist, despite the absence of the political elite. There are several individuals who are politicians and have a political program. We do not still have the level of the nineties, the politicians are pushed out. For example, one person from the “Karabakh Committee” has remained in the political field. The political elite is corrupt.” Former member of “Heritage” party, Vardan Khachatryan, said that the elections have slid down to the Middle Ages, as in those days there was a property qualification so as now, you should have a serious ability so that the political force is seen in the arena: have resources, money for election bribes and so on.
Mr. Ishkhanyan also recalled that there was a clear ideological struggle in the nineties, there were powerful parties: Union for National Self-Determination, Pan-Armenian National Movement, newly formed ARF, Communist Party, “The corruption started from 1995 when elections are rigged, the opposition degenerated. What ideology we can talk about when a party is formed by the name of a man, when people change the face and become the bearers of a person and the surname.” Talking about the electoral lists, Mr. Ishkhanyan formulated his opinion in brief, “We are so despised that the author of an offshore scandal appears on the list.” Mr. Ishkhanyan meant the former head of the Compulsory Enforcement Service (CES), Mihran Poghosyan.
