Political analyst: only nonpartisans should run for seats in Armenian national assembly in individual races

YEREVAN, July 18. /ARKA/. Hmayak Hovhannisyan, chairman of the Union of Armenian Political Scientists, said Wednesday that only nonpartisans should run for seats in the National Assembly in individual races.

He told journalists that the recent parliamentary elections had shown that political parties use every lever for pushing own candidates leaving absolutely no room for those who are not members of political parties. 

Nevertheless, he said, there are still two independent members– Edmon Marukyan and Araik Grigoryan - in the parliament. 

“Despite party leaders’ attempts to inflate the number of their loyalists, it is obvious that nonpartisans constitute the overwhelming majority of the country’s population, but there are very few independent members in Armenian National Assembly, while it is known that these very people represent our society’s interests,” Hovhannisyan said. 

He proposed two ways for solving this problem – to conduct individual races and party list elections separately, or to make individual races the prerogative of nonpartisans. 

The 131-member Armenian National Assembly is made up of six factions. The ruling Republican Party of Armenia has 69 members in the National Assembly, Prosperous Armenia 37, the opposition Armenian National Congress seven, Orinats Yerkir, another member of the ruling coalition, six and opposition Armenian Revolutionary Federation Dashnaktsutiun and Zharangutiun (Heritage) parties five members each.-0---