On December 9, 2018, 11 political parties and alliances, applied to the Central Electoral Commission for the upcoming snap parliamentary elections. In the coming days and weeks, we will present the electoral past of all 11 groups. We start with the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF).
The ARF has had representation in the parliament of Armenia since 1990.
After being forcibly removed from Soviet Armenia in the early 1920s, the party returned to the Armenia in the August of 1990.
In May of the same year (and again in a second round in June), the ARF could not participate in the Supreme Council elections, not only because it had not yet been legally established in the Soviet Union (it became legally established in August 1990), but also because the elections were solely based on a majoritarian system. Nevertheless, shortly after the parliament was formed, the ARF faction was admitted and together with the National Democratic Union and the Union for National Self-Determination, it became the opposition against the Pan-Armenian National Movement.
During the 1995 parliamentary elections, Levon Ter-Petrosyan blocked the ARF from participating. With a majority vote, one ARF member, Rubik Hakobyan (a Communist journalist who had joined the ARF, and later the Heritage Party, and is now non-partisan), was elected to parliament and voiced the party’s agenda inside and outside the parliament. In the September 1996 presidential elections, the ARF defended Vazgen Manukyan, a united opposition candidate against Ter-Petrosyan.
In the 1999, 2003, 2007 and 2012 parliamentary elections, the ARF received the 5 percent vote it needed to enter parliament. Its deputies were also elected through the majoritarian electoral system. The ARF had its best election results in 2007, when it won almost 13 percent of parliamentary seats.
In the 1998 and 2003 presidential elections, the ARF did not put forth a candidate and instead backed Robert Kocharyan’s candidacy against Karen Demirchyan, and then against Stepan Demirchyan. In the 2008 presidential elections, ARF candidate Vahan Hovhannisyan received 6 percent of votes. In the 2013 presidential election, the ARF did not nominate a candidate and instead supported Serzh Sargsyan against Raffi Hovannisian.
In the April 2017 parliamentary elections, the ARF received 5.5 percent of the vote. On April 14, 2018, the ARF supported the candidacy of Serzh Sargsyan for the position of prime minister and was again a part of the coalition government. Two days after Serzh Sargsyan’s resignation, on April 25, the ARF announced the termination of its participation in the political coalition, and two weeks later joined the temporary government of Nikol Pashinyan, which lasted until October 2.
For the upcoming December 9 parliamentary elections, the ARF has nominated 152 candidates, 22 of which are non-partisan. At the top of their list is the ARF Bureau political representative, Armen Rustamyan.
The first and only parliamentary elections of the Republic of Armenia to date, were in June of 1919 and that election was also the first ever for the people of Armenia. The ARF, which was the ruling power at the time, won that election (the second largest power, the People’s Party of Armenia, boycotted the elections), and had nominated 120 people. Here are the top 20 members of that list whose names have entered the history of Armenian political thought.
1. Avetik Sahakian
2. Hovhannes Katchaznouni
3. Avetis Aharonian
4. Karekin Pastermadjian (Armen Garo)
5. Mikayel Varandian
6. Hamazasp (Hamo) Ohanchanian
7. Hovsep Der-Tavitian
8. Abraham Gyulkhandanyan
9. Roupen Der-Minassian (Roupen Pasha)
10. Nigol Aghpalian
11. Alexander Khatisian
12. Hovsep Arghutian (Ishkhan)
13. Smbat Khachatryan
14. Vahan Papazian (Goms)
15. Levon Tadevosyan (Papasha)
16. Drastamat Kanayan (Tro)
17. Sargis Araratyan
18. Artashes Babalian
19. Berjuhi Barseghyan
20. Hovakim Budaghyan
Tatul Hakopyan
Translated by Sareen Habeshian
CivilNet
