Let’s at least be realistic now. Pashinyan’s success in Sunday’s election cannot be explained by electoral fraud and administrative resources alone. The government always gets an “extra bonus” and, by the way, that is the reason why it is impossible to change the government in Armenia through elections. But, according to experts, this “bonus” is about 10-15% of voters. Even if we remove them, it will still turn out that about half a million voters voted sincerely and voluntarily for the force that led the country to a shameful defeat and national humiliation. Why this happened, of course, is not the subject of one article or even one book. Here, I will try to make two preliminary remarks.
The first reason that is rightly mentioned by many is that Robert Kocharyan was perceived as Pashinyan’s main rival, and the public attitude towards the second president of Armenia is mostly negative. People associate Kocharyan’s name with the millions of dollars obtained through dishonest means, October 27, March 1 and many other bitter memories. I do not know how well-founded all these accusations are. In any case, on March 1, 2008, 10 people were actually killed on the streets of Yerevan, and Kocharyan was the leader of the country at that time. Maybe he does not feel responsible but guilty, but those excuses are not convincing, at least for me. In addition to that, Robert Kocharyan evokes various negative associations with different people. Including myself. But besides Pashinyan and Kocharyan, I also saw other political forces, and most of our voters did not. It is not true, in my opinion, that they consider Pashinyan a genius leader. But they are more afraid of Kocharyan’s return than of Pashinyan’s reproduction.
Another reason for the success of the current government is that the opposition political forces, despite the fact that they were formally campaigning, did not have real contact with the voters, and deep down, sometimes even on the Internet, they were described as “idiots.” Asking for a vote of confidence from “idiots,” let’s agree, is a bit strange. Yes, in the “shadow of the majority,” people feel safer and more comfortable. It is normal, it is a pattern. It is an unforgivable arrogance to accuse them and to think deep down that “I am not like that.”
The authorities were reproduced, but that does not mean that it will be easy for them to lead a country. As far as why, I will discuss that in tomorrow’s article.
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Aram Abrahamyan
