Armenian activists call for new wave of protest against electricity price hike
By Sara Rajabova
Although the massive demonstrations against the electricity price hike in Armenia have recently stopped, activists say that they have no intention to give up protesting.
They don’t believe in the government’s promises to solve the problem and plan to start new wave of demonstrations.
Members of the “Rise up, Armenia” civil initiative said any threat of electricity price hike should be eliminated by August 1 by beginning a new wave of protests, the Armenian media reported.
The decision on rise of the electricity tariffs will enter into force on August 1. The government, however, hasn’t made any clarification on the issue yet, even though the window of opportunity is shrinking between now and the scheduled date of the price hike.
Armenia’s Commission on Regulation of Public Services in its June 17 meeting approved a decision to increase electricity tariffs by 6.93 Armenian drams (about $0.015). As a result, consumers would have been required to pay 48.78 drams instead of the current 41.85 per 1 kWh per day.
Members of civil initiative will launch a new sit-in at Republic Square in Yerevan on July 27 to once again demand the cancellation of the decision to increase electricity tariffs, the Armenian media reported.
Members of the “Rise up, Armenia” movement said there’s a delusion in society that the problem of the tariff has been solved after President Serzh Sargsyan’s announcement.
Sargsyan had stated that the government would cover this price hike until an audit is conducted at the Electric Networks of Armenia (ENA) Company, which supplies electricity to the country’s residents.
After the announcement, the number of people taking part in the demonstrations began to lessen and eventually led to a halt in protests after some time, excluding a few protests in capital Yerevan.
Some experts believe that the main purpose of Sargsyan’s announcement was to divert the protesters and weaken demonstrations.
“Many people today think that if the government stops subsidizing electricity price hike, it will again be possible to restrain tariff rise by protests. But we must be able to raise a new wave of protests by August 1 and achieve abrogation of the decision,” civil initiative council member Davit Sanasaryan said.
The “Rise up, Armenia” movement members also held discussions with some political forces on raising a new wave of protest to find out who will back them then.
The Armenian government has put forth new constitutional reforms in the country, which is not being received warmly by the society.
“Rise up, Armenia” initiative members also said the struggle against the draft constitutional reforms is on their agenda. According to Andrias Ghukasyan, a member of the initiative council and former presidential candidate, the draft constitutional reforms will later deprive civil society of the possibility to influence political decisions through protests.
Chapters 1 through 7 of the new draft Constitution of Armenia were made public on July 15. Accordingly, the country will make the transition from a semi-presidential to a full parliamentary system of governance.
The activists also announced that they invited the policemen for discussions on holding free and peaceful rallies. “If the police don’t agree, we will consider that we have warned them, and will continue our protests,” they said.
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Sara Rajabova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on
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