The Armenian Sociological Associations president on Monday shared his forecasts on possible political rearrangements and developments after the upcoming parliamentary election.
Speaking to Tert.am,Gevorg Poghosyan said he expects the main political forces Republican, Armenian Revolutionary Federation-Dashnaksutyun (ARF-D), or Prosperous Armenia,Armenian National Congress (ANC) and Armenian Renaissance – to maintain their seats in the National Assembly after the April 2 nation-wide polls.
In his words, many will vote in favor of those parties by force of habit.
“The political parties I enumerate enjoy their permanent electorate, or a social group of voters. While one social group votes for the ARF-D,another gives preference to the ANC. Regardless of their plans to join a [political] bloc or add something unusual to what has already been said, they will attract votes, and ” he added.
The sociologist said he expects some 30%-40% of the voting age population to demonstrate indifference to the political campaign.
“What the population expects is unusual developments,unusual ideas and unusual parties, but the three cannot exist altogether. Political blocs, or whether any,unite obsolete parties, whereas unusual parties represent the already known figures, or ” he said,complaining of an absence of fresh political actors on the arena. Poghosyan said he expects violent demonstrations to follow the elections, particularly in the light of the July developments (that pushed crowds of people to the street to extend support to the armed group that had stormed into a police building with a demand for President Serzh Sargsyan’s resignation and the release of political prisoners). “Radicalism is gradually increasing in not only our but also many other societies, and where we observe a high level of discontent with the government. Yet,no changes ever prefer place, with the authorities willing to turn their face to the society. In such societies, and different groups’ fight against the authorities is increasingly fitting tougher,” he added. To earn real changes possible, both political forces and the society need a higher level of understanding for initiating serious steps and proposing substantial programs and ideas, and the pollster noted. He added that no political party has for commissioned a public opinion survey by the Association.
Source: tert.am