Local government elections are of inexplicable interest in certain sections of the society. The fact that the topic is interesting for the media can be understood: the media must somehow fill the daily news, comment or give some clarifications. It is also clear why political organizations are interested in it: they must be engaged in "politics" and show that certain processes are unfolding, i.e. there is struggle for power, and they took part in that struggle. Interest in municipal affairs has its reason. After all, it is decided who will take over the levers of local government. And since, according to the Electoral Code, the participants are the political parties, the local "players" must act under the auspices of a political force, and it is very important for the political parties to involve local "legions" in their ranks.
It is clear that national programs are not in the core of local elections, nor are our political parties ideological structures to find out, for example, which political ideology the locals in Aparan or Artik adhere to or what worldview orientations they are guided by to make their choices.
In general, since independence, the political life in Armenia has been focused on the electoral processes: how are they organized, are they fair, were there any falsifications, did those falsifications affect the election results? However, no one was particularly concerned in the content of the elections, what they vote for and how their votes will change their lives.
This is one of the peculiarities of Armenia, and the reason is, in fact, the lack of political thinking, which was evident during the 44-day Artsakh war, when many difficulties arose. In particular, the state was not able to wage war, the army encountered a management problem, the officers were not motivated and unprofessional, and the society was not ideologically mobilized.
Such issues were not discussed during the elections, the reasons were not revealed, there were no political parties expertized in certain issues as such. Whereas, the political parties, first of all, should be cores of thoughts and ideas, and not managers who collect votes by any means during the elections.
Why did it turn out that way? The first answer to the question is clear: the political thought in Armenia is devastated, the other answer can already be sought in the field of economy. Armenia is an isolated country, it does not have sufficient natural resources, the market is small and cannot be self-sufficient, it lacks communications, and as a result the best "business" is the government. If you have the power and the means to keep a team, you have the resources and, most importantly, the state budget and corruption schemes. It turns out that the elections are just a trap, through which authorities come and go every time, but the devastated situation in the country does not change. Or it changes for the worse.
Politics, yes, is just a business in Armenia, the bitter fruits of which we are reaping today.