Artur Sakunts: “RPA should not be very happy; it won not as a party but by its traditional tools: persuading, bribing and pressuring”
10:24, October 12, 2016 | News, Other news
The voting of the mayor in Vanadzor has shown that in fact the parties are not established; moreover, they are in a state that they are even unable to speak on behalf of their members. In his interview to ‘Medialab’, Artur Sakunts, Chairman of Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly-Vanadzor, made this observation referring to Vanadzor Council of Elders meeting of October 10 and the scandalous voting of the mayor.
Yesterday, RPA candidate Mamikon Aslanyan was elected mayor of Vanadzor in a tense and strained atmosphere.
19 out of the 33 Council of Elders members voted for him by secret ballot and the rest 14 members voted for Krist Marukyan, candidate of ‘Bright Armenia’ Party.
Before the voting, the PAP (‘Prosperous Armenia’ Party), ‘Armenian Renaissance’ and ‘Bright Armenia’ Party signed a memorandum on jointly endorsing Krist Marukyan’s candidacy. In that case, it would be possible to have 18 votes for Marukyan and 15 votes for the RPA candidate, which would mean that the power would pass to the opposition in Vanadzor.
However, as expected, some of the members of this trio who signed the memorandum voted for RPA candidate.
The voting of the mayor of Vanadzor was accompanied by disputes and scandals. The members of PAP and ‘Armenian Renaissance’ Party were instructed by the leaders of their parties to take a picture by their mobile phones of their ballots after the voting. But the counting commission decided to ban voting with mobile phones.
After the voting, Naira Zohrabyan, Chairperson of PAP, said that all the 3 PAP members of Vanadzor Council of Elders voted for Krist Marukyan’s candidacy. Heghine Bisharyan, member of ‘Armenian Renaissance’ Party, also said she was sure that their 5 members as well complied with the provisions of the memorandum and voted for the candidate of ‘Bright Armenia’ Party. Edmon Marukyan, leader of ‘Bright Armenia’ Party, said that such a result was expected and it would become known soon which Council of Elders members had broken their promise.
“Essentially, this shows that while the principle of formation of the Council of Elders changed, i.e. it shifted from the majority system to proportional one, it is proportional only in its form; in fact, by its content is was a majority voting, as individual parties involved among their candidates persons reputed in local places who acted under the name of such parties. And that had a crucial significance not only for the voting results”, Artur Sakunts says to ‘Medialab’.
He notes that ‘Bright Armenia’ Party is an exception in this list and it is a truly political team. And RPA, which acts as a team, but is set up on completely different basis, relies on administrative resources.
RPA is a group of heads of entities under marz (regional) and community subordination holding offices and persons representing regional authorities and according to Sakunts, its members are connected with the aim to keep their offices rather than any political or partisan interests.
“And we cannot call the others political teams. That was also shown in meeting these arrangements. Of course, in this majority voting by its content, these personal factors and arrangements among persons should have been much more decisive than those achieved among the parties. This speaks to the fact that in communities, parties are not established yet as forces implementing policies at the local level”, he says.
According to Sakunts, the parties still have a long way to go to become well-established.
On the other hand, according to him, “RPA should not be very happy about those results as it should realize that it won not as a party but by its traditional tools: persuading, bribing and pressuring”.
“It were those tools that worked and the party did not win. Definitely, RPA did not receive the majority of the votes by the voting results, despite all the violations identified both during the election campaign and on the voting day. And I think it’s a Pyrrhic victory”, Sakunts notes.
According to him, it is very vulnerable to act as a party only relying on administrative resources; it’s a result achieved only by the resources of the authorities, law enforcement agencies and various personal interests and arrangements. And the voting of the parties in the Council of Elders did not live up to the expectations of the people of Vanadzor.