"Fact" daily writes:
The system of local self-government plays a particularly important role in the structure of the democratic government of the state, because it ensures the direct participation of the population in the management of community life. The local government system allows citizens and local bodies to make decisions on the development of their communities, taking into account local needs and characteristics.
It provides a quick and efficient solution to community problems, reducing the constraints of centralized management and bringing decisions closer to the people.
It is important that the local government system envisages decentralization in the implementation of certain functions, implementing the exercise of power at the community level, but in terms of the formation and operation of the central political authority in the country, it can have a great impact in the context of the formation of public sentiments in the localities.
And in countries with a democratic system, the political struggle between political forces and candidates is important in the matter of the formation of the TIMer, within the framework of which program the given self-governing body will conduct its policy, and what are its advantages. But after Pashinyan came to power, the Communist Party led by him faced serious problems in the context of political struggle in the regions.
The first problem is that even now, the CP is not perceived by the citizens as a political party in the classical sense, because it does not have an ideology and does not carry such value attributes that political parties have. Therefore, it was left to lead the fight around individuals.
And people did not know the candidates nominated by the Communist Party, nor were they aware of their activities, because the biggest task of many was to walk next to Pashinyan in the spring of 2018.
And so, the authorities saw that their chances of victory were shrinking, that's why they changed the Electoral Code, removed the majority option from the system of local government elections, and instead made it completely proportional, so that it would take place under Pashinyan's "market" in a political sense.
In fact, in the local government elections, citizens in the marzes did not vote for CP candidates, but instead voted for Pashinyan, who in many cases personally participated in the campaign or expressed his support. But even this step did not produce such great results as that the ruling political team expected.
That is why, in order to take control of local governments, the authorities switched to the version of enlargement of communities, in which case, first, the levers of the central authorities increase even more, then, after the enlargement, it was felt necessary to hold new elections.
But even in this case, the authorities were not able to register success in a number of communities, although most of the time they showed that they were allegedly satisfied with the results of the elections. When the candidate of the KP's heart lost to the current mayor in Abovyan, Pashinyan declared that democracy had won.
But the subsequent realities showed that the authorities are resorting to such measures that democracy will not win, but only they will seize the power of local government systems at any cost.
Perhaps this is due to the fact that Pashinyan and his team have fears that the process of their removal may start in some places and then gradually spread throughout the republic. Therefore, the authorities have put into action and are using all the levers they have to seize all the local governments, even if illegally.
And for this purpose, first of all, "law enforcement" levers are put into use. On the eve of the elections or immediately after, very "suddenly" law enforcement officers begin to reveal the alleged abuses of the opposition candidates.
It is no coincidence that on the eve of the elections, criminal cases were initiated against opposition candidates for community heads in Syunik or other marzes, in cases of various abuses, which also affected the results of the elections.
It is true that later most of those works were simply destroyed over time, but the work was already done. On the other hand, the legal baton was used against the already elected community heads.
For example, in Vanadzor, the opposition mayor, who was already elected by the people, was arrested and was not allowed to take office. In general, with such an approach, the authorities show that they simply do not care about the people's vote, the most important thing for them is to seize the local government system.
If they need to, they can remove even the elected and acting community heads. As a result of various pressures, the mayor of Alaverd was dismissed. Even now, pressure has been applied in order to "occupy" Gyumri. And it is already being said that the Sisian community is next in line.
This is the anti-democratic system created by Pashinyan in Armenia.
Although, there is nothing surprising, how they came to power through a power grab, how they then grabbed the CC, universities, a part of the judicial system, other institutions, and the attempts of total power grab continue.
ARTHUR KARAPETIAN
