Financial power overtaking ideology in Armenian electoral  landscape-expert

ArmInfo.Elections in Armenia today have become not a battle of political ideas, but a battle of financial resources, which political forces use to attract voters, as stated by public finance management specialist Artak  Kyurumyan  at a press conference titled "Who Finances Politics? Risks Ahead of Elections." in Yerevan.

In this vein, the expert touched on the changes that came into effect  in 2024, according to which the threshold for donations to the  election fund has increased from 2.5 million drams to 10 million  drams, and the new reporting form only contains the first and last  name. Kyurumyan noted that these changes could have negative  consequences, as the National Assembly of Armenia has many people  with identical first and last names, making it difficult to identify  donors. "That's why other data exists to identify a person, and in  this sense, just having a first and last name creates problems," he  noted.

Te expert noted that higher limits open the door for "shadow sums" to  penetrate the political process, creating volatility for both the  ruling party and the opposition,s financial flows could spiral out of  control.  "Essentially, it creates a problem with monitoring income  and expenditures, meaning there's no way to ensure that we're dealing  with a fair political struggle in the elections," the expert noted.

I this regard, he called for attention to who initiated the increase  in the donation threshold, recalling that the initiative came from  the ruling Civil Contract party. Kyurumyan noted that such actions  raise doubts, raising questions about the possible hidden agendas of  these decisions. "Businessmen often finance the authorities to secure  future loyalty from state structures," Kyurumyan explained. "This  suggests a hidden financial benefit or a pre-arranged agreement with  the government. Of course, funding issues also affect other political  forces, but I focus specifically on the government, since they manage  public finances."

According to the expert, investigative journalism plays a significant  role in this context, as it, unlike the agencies responsible for it,  uncovers such cases. As Kyurumyan noted, a lack of attention to this  issue could lead to a loss of public confidence in the fairness of  elections. "In essence, people see that elections have long ceased to  be a battle of ideologies, but have become a battle of financial  resources. In 2018, the people of Armenia, when making their choice,  rejected the old, unfair governance and strove for justice.  However,  since the people were unable to achieve this, their disappointment  became so great that elections have now become an arena for a battle  of financial resources, used by political forces to attract voters.   Therefore, in these elections, we expect maximum use of communication  technologies to motivate voters to vote for one force or another,"  the expert believes.

Speaking about what needs to be done in this case, Kyurumyan noted  that changes are necessary. He said the country must not ignore a  number of challenges facing it, and political forces must not simply  propose something in the ideological struggle, but also explain how  to implement these proposals to voters and provide financial  accountability.

In turn, political scientist Tigran Mugnetsyan, added that the new  system fosters dangerous dependencies.  Under the 2024 rules,  donations are routed through parties before reaching election funds,  effectively masking the original source of the money from the voter.

Furthermore, data regarding donors will only be made public the  following year-long after the ballots are cast. "Transparency is only  achieved if a voter knows who is funding a party before they vote,"  Mugnetsyan stated, adding that the law was passed without adequate  public debate. "The problem is also that there has been no adequate  discussion of these changes, and no justification has been provided  for the imperative reasons behind them. It turns out that these  changes open up opportunities for those who currently have  significant financial resources," Mugnetsyan concluded.