ELECTIONS NEVER CHANGE REGIME IN ARMENIA, SAYS EX UNIVERSITY CHIEF
26.12.12
The Armenian society has grown mature enough to realize that elections
can never change the regime, says a former rector of the Yerevan
State Linguistic University.
Prof. Suren Zolyan believes the Armenian society no longer wishes
elections, the process no longer being in demand.
“If only one candidate is participating in the election to become a
president, with all the other playing the clown’s role – being either
self-nominated or appointed – the parties too, feel the public moods,
and no longer wish to act in the role,” he told Tert.am.
It comes after the opposition Armenian Revolutionary Federation
Dashnaksutyun decided at a recent meeting not to nominate its own
candidate in the upcoming presidential polls.
First President Levon Ter-Petrosyan, who heads the opposition Armenian
National Congress, and Prosperous Armenia party leader Gagik Tsarukyan
had earlier declared plans for not joining the race.
Zolyan, who is a political scientist by profession, doesn’t think
Armenia has a political experience or political parties.
“There are single-person parties, and that person guides himself with
his own desires, not the logic of the political developments. I could
not absolutely realize which party’s leader decides whether or not
to nominate himself,” he said.
Zolyan thinks parties should replace a leader who is passive in
political processes, a practice, which he said, is uncommon in Armenia.
From: A. Papazian