The Partnership for Open Society, a coalition of 60 civil society organizations, is pleased to announce the presentation of a publication on “Political parties – viewpoints and approaches” on May 3, at 3 P.M. in the Ball Room of Congress Hotel. Simultaneous interpretation will be provided.

This effort initiated by the Partnership for Open Society was an attempt to identify the most problematic issues in our country and clarify our political elite’s stance on specific issues in almost all areas of public life. We tried to do it with the help of a questionnaire, put together by experts representing different areas, who also identified the parties for interviews.

May 12 parliamentary elections pose a serious challenge to Armenia and its people, since the conduct, as well as the outcome of the elections will determine the course of the country’s development in the next few years. Political parties are now actively campaigning to present their political platform to the public at large. However, often it is difficult to find substantive, if any, differences in party platforms. It is even more difficult to find answers to questions that are of concern to us as a civil society, since the texts of party programs are usually very general, containing generic statements.

We think of this publication as a step to bridge the existing gap in understanding the approaches and views of political parties on different issues of concern to the civil society, a step, which we hope will lead to other initiatives by political parties and/or local and international organizations to reveal and present the views of the political parties participating in the 2007 election campaign on issues in different areas of interest to the public. We hope the information we find in the publication will help us understand the programs of political parties better, and thus help us make an informed choice on the election day.