Monday,
26 Parties, Blocs Cleared For Armenian Elections
• Marine Khachatrian
Armenia - A man in Yerevan looks at the campaign billboard of the opposition
Bright Armenia Party, May 25, 2021.
Armenia’s Central Election Commission (CEC) on Monday allowed a record 22
parties and 4 alliances to run in next month’s parliamentary elections.
The CEC did not disqualify any of the political groups that submitted their
lists of election candidates and other registration documents to it last week.
They will be vying for at least 101 seats in Armenia’s new parliament that will
be elected on June 20 under the system of proportional representation.
The parties will need to win at least 5 percent of the vote in order to be
represented in the National Assembly. The vote threshold for blocs is set at 7
percent.
Only three groups -- the ruling My Step bloc and the opposition Prosperous
Armenia (BHK) and Bright Armenia (LHK) parties -- cleared these thresholds in
the last general elections held in December 2018.
Civil Contract is running for the parliament on its own this time around. The
LHK and the BHK have also not teamed up with other parties.
Among other major elections contenders are the political forces led by Armenia’s
three former presidents: Levon Ter-Petrosian, Robert Kocharian and Serzh
Sarkisian.
The CEC chairman, Tigran Mukuchian, admitted that the record-high number of
contenders will require additional expenditures on the conduct of the snap
elections. The commission will have to print millions of more ballots and ship
them to 2,000 or so polling stations across the country, he said.
“Our Electoral Code stipulates that a separate ballot must be printed for every
party or bloc,” Mukuchian told reporters. “This means that in every polling
station a voter will get 26 ballots, pick the ballot carrying the name of a
party or bloc preferred by them … and drop the other ballots into a bin that
will be placed there.”
Mukuchian and the chief of the Armenian government’s staff, Arsen Torosian, met
with Yerevan-based foreign diplomats on May 18 to discuss preparations for the
elections aimed at ending a serious political crisis in the country. Torosian
assured them that the government will do its best to ensure that the vote is
free and fair.
Kocharian’s Bloc Prioritizes Defense, Security
Armenia - Former President Robert Kocharian greets a supporter in Yerevan, May
28, 2021.
Former President Robert Kocharian pledged to rebuild Armenia’s armed forces and
get the country reeling from last year’s war in Nagorno-Karabakh back on its
feet as his opposition alliance unveiled an election manifesto at the weekend.
Kocharian and his political allies presented various chapters of the extensive
document at a meeting with several hundred members of their alliance called
Hayastan (Armenia) held in Yerevan. Journalists were not allowed to attend the
meeting.
Kocharian focused on what he regards as the key challenges facing Armenia,
saying that its current government’s policies on defense and national security
have been an “utter failure.”
“The first necessary action we will take in the area of security will be to
restore the combat-readiness of the armed forces, not for waging a war but for
ensuring dignified peace,” he said in a speech. “There is just no other option.
The army is the backbone of a country’s security.”
Kocharian went on to denounce the current government’s foreign policy as “cheap
trickery” that has alienated Armenia’s allies and partners. “We will restore
confidence in our country as a predictable and understandable partner,” he said.
“The defeat in the war must not inhibit us through an inferiority complex … We
do have a potential for quick recovery and will do everything to make that an
important and vital issue for our allies and, first and foremost, Russia as
well,” added the ex-president.
Kocharian made a case for Armenia’s “much deeper integration” with Russia
shortly after Russian President Vladimir Putin brokered a ceasefire deal that
stopped the Armenian-Azerbaijani war in November. He said only Moscow can help
Armenia rebuild its armed forces and confront post-war security challenges.
Putin reportedly spoke with Kocharian by phone when the latter visited Moscow in
late March. A Kremlin spokesman said afterwards that that the two men maintain a
“warm rapport” and talk to each other “quite often.”
Kocharian’s bloc is expected to be one of the main challengers of Prime Minister
Nikol Pashinian’s Civil Contract party in the parliamentary elections scheduled
for June 20. The ex-president set up the bloc on May 10 together with the
Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun) and another opposition party,
Resurgent Armenia.
Pashinian Wants Landslide Election Victory
• Naira Bulghadarian
Armenia - Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian meets with residents of Kut village
close to Armenia's border with Azerbaijan, May 27, 2021.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian has urged Armenians to hand his political party a
landslide victory in the upcoming general elections, saying that it would usher
in an “era of peaceful development” in their country.
“If we want stability to be restored after the elections … we are asking,
expecting, urging and hoping that the Civil Contract will get 60 percent of the
vote in the elections,” Pashinian said during a weekend visit to Armenia’s Lori
province.
“This is necessary so that we open an era of peaceful development,” he told
local supporters. “We don’t need other scenarios. We want the elections to take
place so that we get back to solving our security, economic, educational and
social problems.”
According to an opinion poll commissioned by the Washington-based International
Republican Institute (IRI) and conducted across Armenia from April 8 through May
4, only 26 percent of people were ready to vote for Pashinian’s party, down from
33 percent reported by the IRI in February. As much as 55 percent of respondents
were undecided about whom to back in the snap elections scheduled for June 20.
The latest IRI poll was conducted before the outbreak of a military standoff on
Armenia’s border with Azerbaijan which has left one Armenian soldier dead and
six others captured by Azerbaijani forces. Some observers believe that the
continuing border dispute has dealt a further blow to Pashinian’s approval
rating.
Pashinian and his allies won 70 percent of the vote in the last elections held
in December 2018 seven months after a “velvet revolution” that brought them to
power. The upcoming vote is supposed to end a continuing political crisis caused
by last year’s war in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Virtually all opposition groups have blamed Pashinian for Armenia’s defeat in
the war. Some of them staged street protest late last year and in February and
March in a bid to force him to resign.
Armenian Foreign Minister Explains Resignation
Armenia - Outgoing Foreign Minister Ara Ayvazian addresses Armenian Foreign
Ministry staff, Yerevan, .
Armenian diplomats must not implement policies jeopardizing Armenia’s
sovereignty and national security, outgoing Foreign Minister Ara Ayvazian said
on Monday, commenting on his decision on resign.
The decision was announced last Thursday just hours after an emergency meeting
of the country’s Security Council which discussed mounting tensions on the
Armenian-Azerbaijani border.
Speaking at the meeting, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian called for the
deployment of international observers along contested portions of the frontier
where Armenian and Azerbaijani troops have been facing off against each other
for almost three weeks. Some opposition figures and other critics of Pashinian
denounced the proposal, accusing him of failing to defend the country against
foreign aggression.
Ayvazian made his first public comments on his resignation at a farewell meeting
with the Armenian Foreign Ministry staff.
“The reason for my decision to resign was to make sure that there are never any
suspicions that this ministry could take some steps or agree to some ideas,
initiatives going against our statehood and national interests,” he said in a
speech greeted with rapturous applause.
“In general, diplomats are perceived as conformist and adaptable individuals
keen to avoid conflicts,” he said. “I believe that in these difficult times we
do not have a right to do that, and I am confident that there will be principled
diplomats among us who will become role models for our society.”
Ayvazian did not comment on concrete government policies and decisions.
Pashinian was quick to respond to the outgoing foreign minister’s remarks
through his press secretary, Mane Gevorgian.
“While we thank Mr. Ayvazian for his work, we believe our national and state
interests require Mr. Ayvazian to publicly explain who, where and how was going
to take some steps or to make decisions contradicting our country’s national and
state interests,” Gevorgian told the Armenpress news agency.
Armenia - Outgoing Foreign Minister Ara Ayvazian addresses Armenian Foreign
Ministry staff, Yerevan, .
For her part, Lilit Makunts, the parliamentary leader of Armenia’s ruling My
Step bloc, insisted that shortly before the Security Council meeting Pashinian
informed Ayvazian about his intention to seek an international observation
mission and that the minister did not object to it.
“I cannot say anything about other [possible] reasons [for Ayvazian’s
resignation] because I don’t know them,” Makunts told reporters.
Later in the day, President Armen Sarkissian formally relieved Ayvazian of his
duties in a decree initiated by Pashinian.
Pashinian appointed Ayvazian as foreign minister on November 18 as part of a
cabinet reshuffle that followed Armenia’s defeat in a war in Nagorno-Karabakh.
The 52-year-old career diplomat had previously worked as Armenian ambassador to
Mexico and various European countries.
The Yerevan newspaper “Hraparak” reported on May 21 that Ayvazian has decided to
resign because he disagrees with Pashinian’s handling of the border crisis.
Following his resignation, this and other media outlets claimed that at least
two of Armenia’s deputy foreign ministers have also decided to step down. The
Foreign Ministry did not confirm or deny the claims.
The crisis began after Azerbaijani troops advanced several kilometers into
Armenia’s Gegharkunik and Syunik provinces on May 12-14. The Armenian military
responded by sending reinforcements to those areas.
Pashinian said on May 27 that both sides should withdraw their troops from the
disputed border areas and let Russia and/or the United States and France, the
two other countries co-chairing the OSCE Minsk Group, deploy observers there. He
said that should be followed by a process of “ascertaining border points”
supervised by the international community.
In a joint statement issued the following day, the French, Russian and U.S.
diplomats co-heading the Minsk Group backed the proposed troop disengagement.
But they did not specify whether their countries are ready to send observers.
Azerbaijan has not reacted to Pashinian’s proposal so far. Baku maintains that
its troops did not cross into Armenia.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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