The Against Everyone party held its “Water Beating” protest near Swan Lake. Several hours before the action, the party had announced that the lake had been drained early in the morning. Activists brought a boat with them, filled it with water and carried out their planned demonstration.
According to party representative Ishkhan Gevorgyan, Against Everyone is the only honest political force that calls things by their proper names and urges citizens to change the system and the rules of the game, Armenpress reported.
“We reject all political forces participating in elections under these rules, because under this system the winner becomes a super-prime minister, while the opposition functions exactly as it has over the past five years — with no real role. We propose changing the system and the rules of the game, giving small parties a chance to participate as well, abolishing the stable majority second-round mechanism, which dates back to Mussolini’s era, and bringing back the ‘against everyone’ ballot option that existed in our fathers’ time,” he said.
Gevorgyan stressed that by small parties he also means his own party.
“I see many good people who joined one political force or another in order to bring change to Armenia, but instead of changing anything, those parties changed them. I want such people to have the chance to present themselves independently, like many other groups. We hope to reach all citizens who are against everyone, and we are confident they outnumber the electoral threshold several times over. We want to enter parliament in such a way that no force receives more than 50 percent,” Gevorgyan said, adding that they represent citizens who oppose all political forces and therefore cannot simply work as ordinary lawmakers using those votes.
He added that if they fail to achieve success, they will give up their mandates, meaning they may lose politically but will continue their struggle together with free citizens.
The Against Everyone party submitted a list of 87 candidates to Armenia’s Central Election Commission. Party representatives have stated that their movement is self-dissolving and that if they come to power, they will implement their promises within 100 days and then resign to trigger new elections.
The party’s candidate for prime minister is human rights activist Nina Karapetyants, who, if victorious, would lead a 100-day government and pledge not to engage in politics for 10 years afterward.
