Angela Khachatryan “As long as the society does not see women leaders, then the quota is mandatory”

Anzhela Khachatryan, the leader of the Free Democrats party, is not the first time to nominate as a candidate for parliament, she made an attempt to participate in the 2017 parliamentary elections, including through a rating system. Anzhela Khachatryan is on the third place in the Free Democrats and Republic parties’ “We” bloc in the snap parliamentary elections scheduled for December 9^th. By the Territorial Electoral Commission she has also been nominated in Yerevan’s N1 constituency.

– What difference do you see between the elections held last year and the upcoming elections?

• The difference is unequivocal, the rules of the game have changed. The logic of all recent elections has been quite different, all the mechanisms of falsification, administrative resources, election bribes have been explicitly applied, and all this has essentially affected the course and quality of the elections. There were also vicious phenomena in previous elections, such as frightening the atmosphere of our citizens, frightened people that if they did not choose the authorities, they would have problems in all aspects of life. The methods I have mentioned will not be implemented anymore and it is obvious that in the absence of their political powers, the possibilities of the political forces are greater than the program and more ideological struggle.

– Nevertheless, the list of “We” bloc has ensured the representation of the lowest of all political forces, with only 34 of the 134 candidates being women or 25.

–– Of course, the list is a bloc list, it also has its role. But I must say that we have not paid attention to this circumstance, that is, we are not artificially engaged women to show that the number of women on our list is great. More on our list are women who are really capable of working in the parliament and who are the bearers of real change. In the first ten of the Alliance, three women candidates are nominated, which is already high, as the law requires a proportion of 25/75. But it should also be noted that there are objective reasons why women do not want to engage in politics or be involved in political processes, work in legislative or executive bodies. I think that the problem is not yet solved at the level of public perception, but our party is trying to be the leader in that issue, and women always have not been represented in the party board by less than 30 percent, we have always had women vice presidents.