Everybody had suddenly become thoughtful and analytical in the Armenian blogosphere. What will happen on May 12 is the question asked time and time again.
David_Sand from JLiving Notes won’t make it to Armenia in time for the elections, but “you don’t choose from two evils” he says, and doesn’t seem to mind. “Honestly, I don’t care also because there is no political force in Armenia at the moment which I could sympathize with.” Looking at the various political forces David_Sand describes Republicans as corrupt beurocrats who are pushing the country deeper into debts, encouraging corruption, leading such monetary policies that small and medium business is steadily driven from bad to worse, Dashnaks as perverts, who keep talking about corruption, while corruption flourishes in ministeries led by them (education, social security). There’s no point in talking about Orinats Yerkir looking at how their ministers behaved while in power. Coming to opposition: HHSh has built its strategy around the most unpleasant people, which still doesn’t justify the arrest of their leader – Alexandr Arzoumanyan, the only good thing about Pashinyan [Impeachment] is that he writes very well and is a good journalist. The expectations that Raffi [Heritage] would at least say something interesting never came to life, David_Sand goes on, everybody else are either “idiots” or “imitators of oppositionism”.
Armenia Votes in 8 hours, Onnik Krikoryan writes at Oneworld Multimedia, “pro-governmental parties are likely to retain a tight grip on the new National Assembly. Of course, what remains to be seen is whether or not this is achieved through a free and fair election or not”, following this conclusion through with a media compilation from Eurasianet here and another article here, passing on to an article by Agence France-Presse’s Michael Mainville. There are very slightly different conclusions in this this article by RFE/RL also reports Onnik says, “many Armenians are still uncertain as to who to vote for or even if they will go to the polls at all. ”
Gagik Tsarukian, MP tycoon and founder of the Prosperous Armenia party, leaves a campaign rally staged in Liberty Square in Central Yerevan © Onnik Krikorian/Oneworld Multimedia for EurasiaNet 2007
Harmick at the Blogrel is looking through the crystal ball and brings his “subjective and personal” preditions, saying:
Serge Sargsyan, and the Republican Party, will take an overall victory. I think the vast number of civil servants, and easily scared citizens may well end up giving their votes to this party, as well as a significant number of people who believe in their policy, and their supporters of course.[]Next in line I think will be the Prosperous Armenia party…
Coming to opposition, Harmick says “many of these anger votes will go to Artur Baghdasayan’s ‘Country of Law’ party”. The votes will be followed next in line by Raffi Hovhannissian and “Heritage” party.
As for Opposition Protests? A lot may depend on the leaders of the opposition and how they feel about the conduct of the eleciton, but by the look of lthings, people are ready to take to the streets.
The blogger concludes “dearly hoping for clean elections [] so that people in Armenia can at least have some faith restored”. Will that be possible with OSCE already before the elections openly questioning whether the 12 May vote can be considered transparent given the rejection of eight international observers from Turkey? Onnik Krikoryan covers this and more:
A1 Plus reports that the Armenian President, Robert Kocharian, has met with the European Union’s Election Observation Mission. According to him, Armenia has displayed its “determination to conduct free and fair elections in compliance with international standards.”
Kornelij Glas is rather frustrated by the OSCE question:
I can of course say much worse words about our pre-election campaign. However, to declare such things when Armenia is rejecting entry to observers from the country, which is practically in state of war with Armenia – is not acceptable. [the translation has been modified to avoid slang]
ALS Movement speaks a lot, but says one thing: “People have just simply lost faith in this system”, as duly noted by Onnik in the comments section.
Will there be end of Armenia’s ‘potato democracy’? asks Unzipped, thus concluding his pre-election thoughts:
I wish I could believe in fairy tale…
Maybe if Armenia wins EuroVision?