FOUNDATION FOR CIVIL AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT AUTHORS AND EDITORS Samvel Mkhitaryan, Chairman of the Foundation, Project Initiator and Leader Mkrtich Anushyan, Executive Director of the Foundation, Project Coordinator Vakhtang Margaryan, Project Manager Arthur Hambardzumyan, Head of Project Staff Work and expert group Ara Hambardzumyan Karine Mkhitaryan Roman Melikyan Lusine Muradyan Evgenya Danielyan Anush Grigoryan POLITICAL PARTIES OF THE REPUBLIC OF ARMENIA PARTICIPATING IN THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY ELECTIONS 2007 VOTER’S GUIDEBOOK YEREVAN, 2007 1 “POLITICAL PARTIES OF THE REPUBLIC OF ARMENIA PARTICIPATING IN THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY ELECTIONS 2007” VOTER’S GUIDEBOOK “FOUNDATION FOR CIVIL AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT”, YEREVAN, 2007 – 120 pages. Authors and Editors Samvel Mkhitaryan , Mkrtich Anushyan , Vakhtang Margaryan , Arthur Hambardzumyan , Ara Hambardzumyan , Karine Mkhitaryan , Roman Melikyan , Lusine Muradyan , Evgenya Danielyan , Anush Grigoryan This Voter’s Guidebook presents brief, unbiased, comparative information on activities, objectives, goals and program fundamentals of political parties participating in RA National Assembly elections 2007. This Guidebook is developed on the basis of responses as provided by parties in the questionnaire developed within the scope of the grant project ''Political Parties of the Republic of Armenia Directory and Voter's Guidebook'' implemented by the Foundation for Civil and Social Development, non-commercial organization (Foundation) and fundamentals included in parties' official public documents. This Guidebook is designed to be widely disseminated among NGOs and international organizations, political parties, education institutions, foundations, state authorities and the general public. Publication of this Guidebook was made possible by the support of Counterpart International’s Civic Advocacy Support Program (CASP), and the support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) under Cooperative Agreement No. 111-A-00-04-00056-00 Publication of the Guidebook was also supported by the OSCE Office in Yerevan. The content, views and opinions expressed in this Guidebook are those of the political parties and the Foundation of Civil and Social Development, and within the scope of their responsibility and do not necessarily reflect the views of Counterpart International, Civic Development and Partnership Foundation, OSCE and OSCE office in Yerevan. This Guidebook is not meant for sale. © FOUNDATION FOR CIVIL AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT 2007 ISBN 978-99941-832-0-4 2 Dear Reader, It is unquestionable that availability of unbiased, comparative, comprehensive and up-to-date information on ideological distinctions, program goals and objectives of political parties, as well as their positions on critical issues in the focus of public attention plays a decisive role in formation of a conscious political stance among the citizens. Unfortunately, RA population is deprived of the opportunity of receiving unbiased and comparative information on RA political parties and their activities, which diminishes the ability of citizens to think independently, shape rationalized opinion and make self-determined conscious decisions. This phenomenon, being a motive for political indifference among wider segments of the population, in addition hinders sustainability, enhanced responsibility and accountability of political parties and development of political society. Particularly, it is for this reason that the pre-election processes occasionally turn into self-glorification and dis-reputation of opponents, instead of public competition of ideas, programs and positions on hot and crucial issues. Consequently, political orientation of citizens disorientated in actual differences of positions of numberless political parties and political figures and indigent of personal conscious attitude is more often influenced by advertisements, fame of parties and their leaders, differing persuasions and elections bribes. Furthermore, unbiased information on parties and their activities is occasionally replaced with self-appraisals, qualification, misinformation, advertisement. The latter is even more hazardous than the lack of real information and wields tremendous negative impact on public demand and trust for unbiased information in general. Solution of the above issues and provision of unbiased, comparative and accessible information on activities, objectives, goals and program fundamentals of political parties to the general public was endeavored by the Foundation of Civil and Social Development supported by the U.S. Embassy in Armenia back in 2004 within the framework of project “Political Parties of the Republic of Armenia”, which included development of the database on RA political parties, active as of 01.09.04, as well as development, publication of the Directory on Political Parties of the Republic of Armenia, publicly available in both English and Armenian languages. However, the political field is constantly changing in line with amendments in the legal framework regulating the field, as a result of which appear new political parties, some parties get liquidated, others - merge, change their political standpoints, etc. Consequently, the information on political parties should be regularly revised and updated, especially in the eve of RA National Assembly and Presidential elections. Thus, development and publication of this guidebook and constant update of the information database and website primarily serve the aim of increased awareness of population on RA political parties through regular provision of systematic, comparative, impartial, accessible and up-to-date information and enhanced responsibility and accountability of political parties. The latter will contribute to enhancement of RA citizens’ civil activity and responsibility, formation of justified political orientation and conscious decision making. Samvel Mkhitaryan, Chairman of the Foundation for Civil and Social Development, Project Initiator and Leader 3 TABLE OF CONTESTS INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................................................................5 POLITICAL PARTIES OF THE REPUBLIC OF ARMENIA PARTICIPATING IN THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY ELECTIONS 2007 *..............................................................................................................................7 1. “NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY” .......................................................................................................................7 2. “NATIONAL ACCORD” PARTY ................................................................................................................................12 3. “NATIONAL UNITY PARTY”.....................................................................................................................................15 4. “PROSPEROUS ARMENIA” PARTY.........................................................................................................................19 5. “DASHINK” PARTY .....................................................................................................................................................27 6. “HERITAGE” PARTY ..................................................................................................................................................31 7. PEOPLE’S PARTY .......................................................................................................................................................38 8. “DEMOCRATIC HOMELAND” PARTY ...................................................................................................................41 9. “DEMOCRATIC WAY” PARTY .................................................................................................................................45 10. “ARMENIAN REVOLUTIONARY FEDERATION DASHNAKTSUTYUN” PARTY........................................50 11. PROGRESSIVE PARTY OF ARMENIA...................................................................................................................54 12. ARMENIAN DEMOCRATIC PARTY.......................................................................................................................57 13. YOUTH PARTY OF ARMENIA ................................................................................................................................61 14. PEOPLE’S PARTY OF ARMENIA............................................................................................................................64 15. COMMUNIST PARTY OF ARMENIA ....................................................................................................................68 16. REPUBLICAN PARTY OF ARMENIA.....................................................................................................................71 17. MARXIST PARTY OF ARMENIA ............................................................................................................................76 18. “ARMENIAN NATIONAL MOVEMENT” PARTY................................................................................................80 19. “REPUBLIC” PARTY .................................................................................................................................................84 20. UNITED LABOUR PARTY ........................................................................................................................................87 21. UNITED LIBERAL