On these days, the alleged opposition – Congress, ARFD and Heritage – have been trying to justify their participation in the “elections” and accepting of the mandates. Armen Rustamyan, member of the ARF Supreme Body, says that everything is not that bad and that the opposition received a total of 45% of votes, including also Prosperous Armenia.
Soon, we will see what these 45% will be worth. As to the opposition forces, they will say the elections were fraudulent and make some effort to dispute the results at the Constitutional Court just in order to ensure the appearance but they will take the mandates anyway to engage in “legislative activities” in the parliament.
The point is that the oppositional forces have not received even the minimum of votes to pass to parliament. They know that too. Apparently, if really free and fair elections were held, they would not receive the necessary number of votes either. So, they entered into a deal with the authorities to rule out any post-election riot in exchange for several mandates. In other words, the authorities rigged the election results even regarding the opposition votes.
Could the opposition simply have ignored the “elections” or run and laid down the mandates? In theory, they could. But the fact is that they entered into a deal with the government. How can they lay down the mandates if the authorities have agreed to boost their percentage? Perhaps, they understood that the money the government paid to voters was of more value than the political decades of empty talks. They also understood that this was the last “election” of the old system in the result of which they will ensure their personal matters for the next 5 years.
On the other hand, it is necessary to welcome the decision of the opposition. After complacency with a state crime and entering the parliament formed in the result of it, they did not leave any illusions in the Armenian people.
In reality, the question in the title should be reworded to “mandate and death”. The only result of the past “election” for the Armenian parliament will be the death of the vicious political system established since Armenia’s independence.
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