Analyst: Only corrupt officials can found a party in Armenia today

ArmInfo. In today's Armenia,  only corrupt officials can found a new party using the stolen money.  Any other people, even groups and communities of people cannot do  this. The conditions for financing parties stipulated by the Law "On  Parties" do not allow it. Director of the Armenian Center for  Strategic and National Research Manvel Sargsyan expressed a similar  opinion to ArmInfo.

The National Assembly of Armenia is actively discussing amendments to  the Electoral Code and the Law on Parties. The working group on the  development of amendments to the Electoral Code and the Law on  Parties consists of representatives of three parliamentary factions:  My Step, Prosperous Armenia and Bright Armenia. At this stage,  changes are being considered that will give maximum transparency to  party funding and campaigning. Changes are planned to be made and  adopted before the end of this year.

"In this light, it is necessary to create such conditions that any  group of people who really intend to establish a political party  could do this. It is necessary to lower the financial threshold to a  level so that it will not matter whether you have billions of drams  or just one thousand. After this, these parties should be subjected  to strict financial responsibility and control over the funds, "he  said.

According to the analyst, the parliament should clearly define by law  the legal, financial possibilities of creating new political parties.  Identify and refuse to establish any financial thresholds for any  coercion in this matter. Otherwise, according to Sargsyan's  forecasts, any thieves' gang will be able to establish a party in  Armenia.

The law "On Parties", according to analysts, is the most important  document for shaping the future political field of the republic.  Meanwhile, today, society does not have conceptual approaches or even  ideas about this law. There is no discussion, interest, let alone  contribution to the formation of an acceptable concept of a future  law. This situation, according to Sargsyan, is surprising given the  importance of this law.

The analyst is convinced of the need to give responsibility to  citizens who intend to establish a political party. Not everyone will  be able to take such a responsibility. Thus, in his opinion, it will  be possible to destroy the vicious practice of RPA times, when  parties were very easily created to participate in elections, a  practice in which dozens of one-person parties were created for the  sole purpose of providing dirty services to any ruling regime.

"Our country, we all, found ourselves in a similar situation thanks  to similar laws and similar parties. Today the situation is somewhat  different, respectively, we need other laws, in particular, the law"  On  Party''.  "However, when you pose this problem to people, it  turns out that nobody's interested in this anymore. And almost no one  wants real, normal parties to appear in Armenia, "the expert summed  up.