Armenia’s second president on the upcoming parliamentary elections: ‘There will be a war of wallets amidst impudence’

Photo by www.azatutyun.am

In the recent interview to his 2rd.am website, Armenia’s second President, Robert Kocharyan, expressed his opinion with regard to the upcoming parliamentary elections and the pre-election campaign struggle:

“Obviously there will be a war of wallets amidst impudence. Since the majority of voters are in poor social conditions, they apparently won’t be ready to refuse money and will most likely enter the vote auction…It’s easy to guess, what it will lead to.”

As Robert Kocharyan pointed out, he still regards as a big mistake the 2015 constitutional reforms, as a result of which Armenia shifted from the semi-presidential onto the parliamentary system of government. Moreover, in his opinion, that will bring short-term negative consequences to Armenia.

Ex-President believes that the new Electoral Code will become the catalyst of the worst features that are characteristic of elections. “In fact, the logic of majority election obviously dominates over the proportional system. Competition between the parties has been pushed behind by the interpersonal struggle, which brings to a naught all the praised advantages of the campaign struggle in the parliamentary model format. Thus, ideological struggle in these elections will be meaningless.”