Armenian authorities and opposition 'too focused' on prime minister to overcome political crisis - opinion

Being increasingly focused on the prime minister's post, neither the incumbent authorities nor the political opposition take any real step towards overcoming the political crisis in Armenia, a Yerevan-based political analyst said today.  

In an interview with Tert.am, Gagik Keryan pointed out to two dominating approaches, which he considered ineffective in terms of promising a settlement in the long run. Highlighting the authorities' proposal for snap parliamentary elections on the one hand and the opposition's objections on the other, the analyst said he sees "constitutional imperfections" in both attitudes. In his words, the opposing political teams are just "vying for seats in the executive", the scenario threatening a deepening a political crisis in the former case and sounding "unrealistic" in the latter (in view of the low chances that the parliamentary majority will back the united opposition's proposal for electing Vazgen Manukyan to the post of the prime minister).

Noting that the past four months (that followed the second Nagorno-Karabakh war) saw no essential changes on the political arena, Keryan proposed his own approach as a potentially effective solution.

He called, in particular, for holding a round table debate bringing together the Central Electoral Commission, the President of Armenia, politically neutral citizens and lawyers.

"There is a constitutional body, i.e. - the Central Electoral Commission, and the President of Armenia, who is not affiliated with any party under the Constitution. I think it is possible to sign a joint memorandum of understanding between the opposition and the authorities and discuss certain issues at the round table that may attract political analysts and lawyers who are [politically] neutral," he added.

Keryan said he believes that the proposed electoral legislation must be unconditionally approved to pave the way to snap elections in the couple of months to come.

"It is necessary to approve, in just week or two, this electoral law and the said decision to conduct elections in two months' time. Otherwise, we will be facing a stagnant situation leading potentially to a decay in the public administration sector and possibly also - civilian clashes," he added.