YEREVAN. – It already is apparent that the ruling system in Armenia plans to use the “controlled chaos” method, in next year’s parliamentary election scheduled for April 2, according to Zhoghovurd newspaper.

“The essence of this strategy will be the fact that, during the NA [i.e. the National Assembly] elections, the political arena [in the country] will be filled with a variety of new parties. It is possible that some of them will be presented as a new force, [but] with ‘old’ faces.

“The objective of all this is to muddle the political arena, so that the voter cannot decide, and [therefore] the old political forces (…) become [just] a ‘small vice’ that also can be tolerated.  

“[But] this tactics implies additional costs for the ruling system. Zhoghovurd estimates that close to 100 million drams [approx. US$209,666] will be needed for each new fake [political] party. But, then again, why would they not spend an additional few hundred million dollars to maintain the ruling system?” wrote Zhoghovurd.