ArmInfo. Early parliamentary elections are by no means a panacea that can overcome the internal political crisis in Armenia. Independent analyst Saro Saroyan expressed his opinion to ArmInfo.
"Even today, we can predict that it is impossible to unravel the internal political Gordian knot through elections. The election will only have a short-term effect. And they may well be accompanied by a stage of post-election upheaval. And, of course, to completely different, different from the expected, domestic political impulses. So, I personally do not have high expectations from the elections," he said.
On March 18, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, following a meeting with the leaders of the Prosperous Armenia party Gagik Tsarukyan and Enlightened Armenia party Edmon Marukyan, announced that early parliamentary elections will be held in Armenia on June 20. After that, "My Step" announced a desire to update the Electoral Code, in particular, regarding the introduction of a proportional electoral system. The project was sent to the Venice Commission at PACE for an expert opinion.
At the same time, the analyst is not at all sure that the elections will be held at all, linking this with the presence or absence of external interest in such a scenario. According to Saroyan, against the background of the inability of the current administration, which has lost the support of a certain part of society, to solve a task of such complexity, it is impossible without external assistance. At the same time, he assumes that Prime Minister Pashinyan has already secured such assistance.
According to the analyst, it will be possible to speak more specifically about the degree of involvement of external forces in the electoral processes in Armenia only with the beginning of these processes. In the meantime, he considers it obvious that there is an external influence on the timing of the elections. In this light, Saroyan noted that the agreement reached between the "My Step" bloc and the "Prosperous Armenia" and "Enlightened Armenia" parties makes it possible to hold elections earlier than in June.
"The resignation of the Prime Minister and other processes within the framework of the Constitution make it possible to hold elections at the end of April. Thus, the intention to hold elections only in June clearly demonstrates the desire to delay this process for at least a month. And the coincidence with the Day of Commemoration of the Victims of the Armenian Genocide on April 24 allows us to draw rparallels with the external interest in this issue. The link between the prospects for the development of Armenian-Turkish relations and the recognition of the Armenian Genocide is no secret. Thus, the timing of the elections, their delaying without any other meaning, already speaks of external interest and involvement in the electoral processes in Armenia," the analyst concluded.