“168 Zham” believes that despite the absence of general elections in the next five years political life in Armenia is unlikely to be stagnant, considering that the country is making a transition towards a parliamentary form of government. “But the peculiarity of the situation will be that in the unfolding political events society and voters will no longer be involved as everything will be taking place within the already formed system, mostly behind the scenes,” the paper writes.
“Zhamanak” considers the May 14 municipal elections in Yerevan as the end of the first electoral cycle in Armenia after the country joined the Eurasian Economic Union in 2015: “Our political system and society have already mastered all the Eurasian ‘standards’, and even formally the elections have ceased to be a source of government formation, which deprives the post-election life of any kind of development, even the slightest intrigue.”
“Haykakan Zhamanak” dwells on the scandalous allegations of vote-buying in favor of the ruling Republican Party’s mayoral candidate Taron Markarian made in the last days of the campaign: “The bribing of voters in Armenia has long become an integral part of elections. Everybody knows about these vote buying schemes, but there is very little hard evidence to prove them. The events of recent days were unprecedented in terms of disclosing the facts of the distribution of electoral bribes by the Republican Party of Armenia.”
“Zhoghovurd” notes that soon a year will have passed since the post-war agreements reached by Armenia and Azerbaijan in Vienna and St. Petersburg and, in particular, referring to opportunities for investigations of reported ceasefire violations and border skirmishes. “But all such agreements will remain on paper and the threat of war will continue to hang in the air as long as Baku relies on its petrodollars and its elder brother’s support, while Armenia remains dependent and economically feeble,” the daily concludes.
(Siranuysh Gevorgian)