Forecast: Extraordinary  elections won`t be a panacea

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.