Armenia: Government Coalition Parties Duke It Out over Yerevan Vote

With the election for Yerevan's City Council 10 days away, the campaign is becoming bruising. But it's not jockeying between the government and opposition that has emerged as the chief source of rancor. Instead, the campaign has opened a window on a simmering power struggle within the governing coalition.

In terms of political pull, organization and financial resources, the governing Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) and its partner, the Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP), are the heavyweights in the country's three-party coalition government. The third coalition party, Rule of Law, is widely seen as a lightweight without the political heft needed to fight on its own.

The April 27 departure of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation from Armenia's ruling coalition cleared the way for both the RPA and PAP to jostle for additional influence, observers say. Prosperous Armenia holds the government portfolios for labor and social welfare, but several deputy ministerial posts remain up for grabs.

Both parties are striving to secure one of the country's most influential political posts -- Yerevan mayor. That is why party leaders and their respective supporters are taking the campaign very seriously. The outcome of the May 31 City Council voting will largely determine the mayoral race, as the city's chief executive will be elected by the new council members.

The budding rivalry is by no means limited to a war of words. The two sides have also gotten physical. The first headline-grabbing fight between RPA and PAP activists took place in Yerevan on May 12, followed by some minor incidents. The latest scrap took place on May 18 in Yerevan's Ajapnyak District. Gunfire, as well as fistfights and verbal insults, marked the occasion, local media reported. Seven individuals from both parties were detained, according to police. [For details, see the Eurasia Insight archive].

One opposition daily newspaper, Haykakan Zhamanak, reported that Prosperous Armenia Party leader Gagik Tsarukian and General Prosecutor Aghvan Hovsepian, accompanied by motorcades, had arrived on the scene to mediate a "ceasefire" during the Ajapnyak scuffle, but had failed to end the confrontation. Prosperous Armenia has denied the report. The claim could not be independently verified.

Police spokesperson Sayat Shirinian stated that the seven detainees asserted that they had just been carrying on "a political discussion with loud voices." But political analysts and opposition politicians object that more than a taste for robust political debates characterizes relations between the Republican Party and Prosperous Armenia.

"There's a struggle for leverage and authority in the government. Everyone wants to fight to keep his stake," independent analyst Andranik Tevanian said. "Both the RPA and PAP do their best to get as many votes as possible to strengthen their positions."

Anahit Bakhshian, a senior member of the opposition Heritage Party, agrees. "What I see is an arduous desire to come to power at any cost," Bakhshian said. "I also see that there are controversies going on within the government" about the city elections and the division of roles within parliament, she continued.

The RPA and PAP leaderships are trying their best to dampen talk of a rivalry. Naira Zohrabian, a parliamentarian for Prosperous Armenia and the campaign manager for the party's Yerevan City Council campaign, adamantly dismissed the notion of a power struggle. "There are no problems inside the coalition at all," Zohrabian asserted. "But one should understand that we have various interests, and we can't avoid this kind of situation." Party members have been ordered "not to give in" to "provocations," she added.

Republican Party spokesperson Eduard Sharmazanov also cited "interests," but asserted that "there are no problems inside the coalition."

"Disturbances during the campaign may be the result of a clash of interests, be that of a social or other nature. There is no need to politicize all that," Sharmazanov said. "A couple of incidents can't interfere with . . . the campaign."

Brawls characterized relations between the Republicans and Prosperous Armenia also during the 2007 parliamentary election campaign. Following the March 2008 crackdown on opposition protestors, the Republican Party formed a coalition with Prosperous Armenia, Rule of Law and the Armenian Revolutionary Federation to restore political "stability." [For details, see the Eurasia Insight archive].

The persistence of brawls only indicates that both the Republicans and Prosperous Armenia believe that there is still room for maneuver, noted independent political analyst Yervand Bozoian. "Developments like these are unavoidable in a country like Armenia, where the political system is not quite formed yet," Bozoian said. "The struggle becomes visible when the forces are almost equal, as is the case with the RPA and PAP."