YEREVAN, MARCH 10, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan commented on the Autocratization Changing Nature? Democracy Report 2022 of Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) Institute which noted Armenia’s progress from “electoral autocracy” to “electoral democracy”.

“Basically this means that in terms of democracy there’s been a change of ranking of Armenia. Meaning, even after the 2018 non-violent, velvet, people’s revolution this organization was continuing to view Armenia as a country with an “electoral autocracy” system, which was using the electoral process to organize its own reproduction. This new designation basically means that the authorities are formed through elections. Meaning, the elections aren’t a tool for reproduction of the authorities, but rather a tool of forming the authorities. In other words, basically we can note that with the 2021 early election of parliament Armenia entered so to say the premier league of democratic countries,” Pashinyan said at the Cabinet meeting.

“Of course this doesn’t mean that democracy in our country is perfect or flawless, but with the cumulative total of various episodes we have received this designation, which, I think is noteworthy,” the PM added.

PM Pashinyan reiterated that democracy is priority for his administration and that their government is committed to establish and develop democratic institutions.

“First of all I’d like to congratulate on the occasion of this ranking and draw our attention on two circumstances: in this premier league we must try to reach higher rankings every year, and secondly, we must capitalize this ranking for serving the agenda items of the Republic of Armenia, starting from the economy up to security. I must also say that we’ve basically seen examples when potential investors or circles having an agenda of the most various activities are paying great attention to such reports. They don’t conduct separate research on the country and upon making a decision to carry out or not carry out any activities in a country they first of all review this kind of reports and make conclusions,” Pashinyan said.