Vice Speaker Melkumyan expects serious presence for Prosperous Armenia party in new Parliament

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 10, ARMENPRESS. The pre-election list of the Prosperous Armenia party will consist of the people adhered to the party mission, program provisions, having knowledge and share. Vice Speaker of the Parliament, member of the Tsarukyan faction Mikayel Melkumyan says he expects serious presence for their party in the Parliament after the upcoming snap parliamentary elections.

Melkumyan gave an interview to ARMENPRESS, talking about the upcoming elections and their pre-election list.

-During the debate of the Electoral Code you stated that many MPs elected by ranked voting system are not delivering remarks, not asking questions. However, that electoral system was maintained, and whether you see the same risks and what are you going to do to keep away your faction from such lawmakers?

-Yes, it has been so. 74 out of 131 MPs have not delivered speeches in the previous Parliament. I have been the most active lawmaker of both the previous and this Parliament. I think it’s not mandatory for this norm to work by 100%. But as today the institute of those who bring votes by the ranked voting system no longer exists, I mean election bribes, administrative resource and etc, these terms have been eliminated. In other words, those, who must have been elected to the Parliament by this scheme, will not be elected, in any case its probability will decrease a lot. But I consider a great mistake the fact that the Electoral Code was not adopted, since the proportional system would enable the political system to develop, in other words, the parties would make a decision inside. But now, in fact, there will be an internal fight between different members of the same party by the ranked voting system.

-Do you think that such lawmakers have not been in your faction in this Parliament?

-For our part the political component has greatly increased in the Parliament of the last convocation. There are many young people among us, women had the highest share, and we had a major political activeness. There are people who have great reputation in their territories and there is no need to approve that publicly. But we can record that the vector is being upgraded.

-Can you be confident that there will be no distribution of bribes during the upcoming elections?

-The systematic phenomenon has been eliminated and it’s a fact. No one can give guarantee for another. There may be people who can always make a mistake, but this cannot be a systematic phenomenon.

-Following the non-adoption of the Electoral Code by the Parliament, you stated that this option perhaps is more beneficial for you, do you mean that the Prosperous Armenia party has more opportunities by this electoral system?

-Both are perceivable and viable for us. But there should have been an upgraded Electoral Code for the development of the political system. But both are perceivable since we have party structures, party members having ties with the people, and I put an emphasis based on this because we have many people who have a reputation in their places.

Full version of the interview is available in Armenian.

Interview by Anna Grigoryan

Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan