Artashes Boyajyan has written a couple of really interesting posts, asking why would anybody want to vote for either Levon Ter-Petrossian or Serzh Sargsyan, after taking an unbiased look at the failures of both candidates during their time in power, when it comes to key state-building issues like:
- building a democratic state, with institutional separation of powers and functional checks and balances;
- establishing (in reality, not on paper) a basically fair and transparent system of economic regulations;
- promoting the rule of law and the respect of dignity and essential rights of Armenian citizens.
The blogger says he’s morally disturbed when otherwise mature and decent people support Levon Ter-Petrossian or Serzh Sargsyan.
[…] Via The Armenian Observer, blogger Artashes Boyajian expresses his concern with educated young Armenians planning to vote for either the prime minister, Serge Sargsyan, or former president, Levon Ter-Petrossian. Artashes Boyajyan has written a couple of really interesting posts, asking why would anybody want to vote for either Levon Ter-Petrossian or Serzh Sargsyan, after taking an unbiased look at the failures of both candidates during their time in power, when it comes to key state-building issues like: […]
Armenian elections are not a proccess of people expressing their will, but rather a competition of candidates’ supporting forces on the spot- city district,village and so on. It resembles th American system in a very peculiar way, as in -not direct election ,but election through electors. Whoever gets more local people with power to dictate in their area to support them wins the elections. As people in power locally are in power thanks to the central government,in order to stay where they are, they support the current government. Unless, the new ones offer them something better ang bigger ,of course,and this can be potentially very dangerous, deepening the state of feudal rule in the country even more. If oyu can’t get the local clans to support you, you get the ex -local elite , the ones that were replaced for one reason or another, to come out of silence, just like he did, promising them their old businesses, local governement positions and so on. This creates a lot of tension in regions, starting clan wars,that stay largely uncovered in media, unless fighting happens during a candidate’s visit. Q.uite worrying developments.
Why is anybody morally disturbed when one wants to elect either one of these lunatics? Is there anybody else there that people can vote for and expect that the candidate would win?
I think it doesnt matter whom people elected. Main thing is the election process itself. If it is not working properly we dont have to expect any major changes. We need to abstract from personal attributes of the leaders. It is political competition. In the country where there is no competition at all, and pretty much everything is monopolized, this elections shows an attempt to monopolize opinions too.