Pros and cons of extraordinary parliamentary elections, through eyes  of political scientists and heads of extra-parliamentary parties

ArmInfo. The early parliamentary  elections in Armenia were in many ways a step forward and had a  number of advantages, but at the same time, it is impossible not to  notice the disadvantages that, of course, took place during them.  About this December 20 at a press conference, said the head of the  party "In the name of social justice" Arman Gukasyan.

He noted that this time the intrigue was not about who would take the  first place, as it was initially obvious, but about who, in addition  to the ruling block My Step, would go to parliament. "That is, the  initial question was who will be the opposition, and what goals will  it set for itself," Ghukasyan stressed.

He said that the undoubted advantage of these elections was the fact  that a dialogue was established between the political forces and the  policy of mutual accusations was not applied. In addition, as  Ghukasyan stressed, a big acquisition during the past elections was  that the political forces communicated with voters at the leadership  level. "Almost all candidates had their own pages in social networks,  on which they shared their thoughts, programs, went on the air. And  of course, another achievement during these elections was that  representatives of political forces tried to bring some creative  "They carried out agitation campaigns in public transport, went home  and even distributed tangerines to voters, trying in every way to  arouse interest in the elections," said Ghukasyan.  At the same time,  he could not overlook those minuses that, in his opinion, were  obvious. "The first and perhaps the biggest drawback, in my opinion,  is that the political forces paid minimal attention to their  programs, in particular, economic ones. As a result, voters did not  understand how, for example, the government intends to ensure  economic growth in country, and what reforms will be carried out in  the near future. That is, we have not seen a single clear-cut  economic program, and the struggle was personal rather than  ideological, "he said. The second disadvantage, according to  Ghukasyan, was that there was no intrigue in the election regarding  the favorite of the race. "During the election campaign, political  forces should not fight for 2nd place, but for the first," he said.  Finally, Gukasyan also complained that some political forces rushed  from one extreme to another: someone vehemently declared that they  needed to have close contact with the West, and someone on the  contrary, noted that cooperation with Russia was important. "As we  can see, such extremes did not bring the political forces to the good  that went to the parliament, which conducted a more sensible and  balanced policy," the head of the party In the name of social justice  concluded.

In turn, political analyst Grigor Balasanyan also noted that the  elections, although they had a number of positive aspects, were far  from ideal. "Among the advantages, I can single out the fact that for  the first time since the time of the third republic in Armenia, early  elections were held. In addition, for the first time, elections were  held without any excesses and falsifications," the political  scientist said. He considered television debates between rival  forces, especially at the level of their leaders, as another  significant advantage. As for the minuses, Balasanyan also, like  Ghukasyan, noted that the parties did not begin to present a clear  political program and were more a personal struggle. The political  scientist also noted that representatives of various political forces  were extremely tolerant of each other. This was especially clearly  manifested in relation to the former ruling Republican Party, the  expert noted. Another negative factor Balasanyan considered the fact  that the acting. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, who heads the "My  Step" bloc, used incorrect statements and harsh rhetoric during the  campaign.  Among the bad sides, he pointed out the fact that the  participants in the pre-election race had spent on her very large  financial resources. "Well, it's bad that there was a sharp  polarization of the political field - that is, one force claimed by  far the first place, all the other 10 struggled to somehow overcome  the passing barrier," the expert summarized.