Armenian News Network /
Groong
The “Vardan Ghukasyan Party” Or How Social Media Affects Armenian Elections
Armenian News Network / Groong
June 12, 2021
By Hovik Manucharyan
On YouTube, fake news in Armenian is not the exception, but almost the norm. Can disinformation on YouTube and other social media turn into actual votes during elections?
Campaign image of Hayots Hayrenik
The
electoral campaign for the June 20 early parliamentary elections is in full
swing. An unprecedented number of political parties and electoral blocks - 26
to be exact - are vying for parliamentary seats in a politically turbulent
Armenia that is currently feeling the after-effects of the disastrous defeat in
the 2020 War in Artsakh.
While
the majority of media and voters focus on political
heavyweights, the polling performance of a little-known party Hayots Hayrenik (Հայոց Հայրենիք) may hold the key
to understanding how social media may affect elections in Armenia. This is
because Hayots Hayrenik
owes most of its fame and polling success to a single infamous social media
personality, Vardan Ghukasyan.
MPG/Gallup Poll - June 5, 2021
According
to the MPG/Gallup poll released on June 5 (before campaigning had started), Hayots Hayrenik achieved a rating
of 0.5% from a polling sample of 1101 people using random digit dialing. In other words, 5 random
people named Hayots Hayrenik
as their party of choice. While the poll’s error margin of ± 3% makes it
difficult to predict the exact results that the party will receive in the
elections, just the fact that it registered at all speaks to the potential
power of social media in influencing election results in Armenia.
Who is Vardan Ghukasyan?
Vardan Ghukasyan
(nicknamed “Dog”) is a former military prosecutor and later police officer who
was known for his rough treatment of suspects. He was fired from his police job
in 2013 for pushing and injuring a journalist and in 2015 was convicted of extortion and left
Armenia after serving his sentence. Ghukasyan denies
his guilt and claims that the trial was a sham.
During and after the war, Ghukasyan
went to Facebook with regular live videos providing sensational details about
secretive corrupt deals in the armed forces. Many of his claims and accusations,
however, cannot be verified. Ghukasyan’s notoriety
also comes from using copious amounts of extremely vulgar language in his
broadcasts.
While he has been the first to leak some interesting
details on corrupt practices in the army, his social media presence soon became
a platform for criticizing other perceived injustices, such as ill-treatment of
army conscripts, well-being of prisoners in correctional institutions, and even
lack of attention by public administrators to the plight of their citizens. In
one of his videos, Ghukasyan spent a significant
portion of his video verbally abusing the mayor of a city for not
prioritizing the running of natural gas lines to a certain street, after
residents of that street complained to him. Former police chiefs and top brass
in the military are common Ghukasyan targets.
In early 2021, when it became clear that Armenia was
heading towards snap parliamentary elections, after weeks of leaving his fans
guessing, Ghukasyan announced that he would be endorsing Hayots Hayrenik. Ghukasyan’s friend, Artak
Galstyan (also known as Vanoyi Artak)
then joined the party and became the prime ministerial candidate. Galstyan announced the party’s
intention to participate on May 18, 2021.
Ghukasyan himself cannot run but has promised
to return to Armenia and assume a top law enforcement, defense, or national
security appointment, should Hayots Hayrenik win the elections.
