Friday, 29 March 2024

E Editorial

Political parties: not a source of danger but guarantee of democracy

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Regime change and free and fair elections have been the main topics in domestic political discourse In Armenia since 1995. The legitimacy of elections, obviously, is very important, but we must admit that this institution resolves merely a technical issue. Whereas the most crucial issue - who has the right to run in the elections and, if it works out, to decide the destiny of the state, for some reason, does not become a subject of public discussion. There is an impression that the ideology and the structure of the political parties, and the vision of the future of state are related to their sovereign right and, coming to power, they can do whatever they want. Just like now.

Our sad political experience of recent decades shows the opposite. For the right to be called a political party and to run in the elections, organizations must strictly comply with certain criteria and requirements to be set before them by the new Law on Political Parties. Only in this way can the desired result of state maturity and raising public awareness be achieved.

However, what does the practice of recent years in Armenia show? In order to seize power in the country through a group of people, it is first necessary to seize power in a political party. The political party operating in such an authoritarian model, after becoming part of the authorities, extends its authoritarian and undemocratic structure to the whole state and the whole system of governance. This is our historical experience, for which our country has always paid dearly. Many opposition political parties, in their turn, have to form such authoritarian political parties due to shady agreements with the authorities.

The well-known statement of the Eduard Sharmazanov, speaker of the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) that the RPA is a family and Serzh Sargsyan is the father of the family is the best expression of that permissiveness, when the political party is not a public-political structure, but a family, that is, a clan with its godfather. During the authoritarian rule formed by Sargsyan, as "strange" as it may seem, in 2016 an extremely liberal law "On Political Parties" was adopted in the National Assembly, which allows creating a political party of any type and any ideology and entrusting the destiny of the country to it. Such thinking gave birth to populists, who, playing on the feelings of the people, came to power and substantiated any illegality "on behalf of the people".

A few words about the Law on Political Parties. It is called to promote the formation of a stable political system in Armenia, freeing it from extremist directions and ideas. The possibility of sustainable development of any country is conditioned by the existence of a stable and predictable political system, for the victory of this or that political party in the elections not to lead to social, domestic and foreign policy shocks.

Legal political parties cannot be considered as self-sufficient units, they must be considered as parts of a common political system, so that, when registered, they are obliged to comply with the strictest legal requirements. In this regard, it is important that the Law regulate the compliance of the social concept and programs of the political parties with the Constitution and the legislation of the Republic of Armenia.

The new law should close all the loopholes that allow political parties to turn into business structures, and small groups of people to usurp power and create a system where leaders are irreplaceable, and the process of forming pre-election lists is one-sided, and so on. Consequently, the political parties become authoritarian or totalitarian structures, and when they come to power, they make the state likewise.

Political parties should not be a source of danger for the state and the people, but strong guarantees for the establishment of democracy in the country, with a perfect toolkit of internal counterbalances.

The Armenian Center for National and International Studies

Yerznkian 75, 0033
Yerevan, Armenia

Tel.:

+374 10 528780 / 274818

Website:

www.acnis.am

  

The views of the authors do not necessarily reflect those of the Center.

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