Presidency
Serzh Sargsyan was sworn in as President inside the Yerevan Opera House on April 9. Referring to the "painful events" that followed the election, he "urge everybody to look forward, together, to seek and find the way for reconciliation, development, and future of Armenia." He appointed Tigran Sargsyan, who had been the Chairman of the Central Bank and is not a member of a political party, as Prime Minister. Vazgen Manukyan, a former member of the Karabakh Committee and a prominent oppositionist, stated that he is optimistic and "will do everything to help this government become successful". On April 18, Sargsyan launched an unusually blistering attack on the Armenian customs, saying that "corruption within its ranks is 'thriving' and hampering the country's economic development." According to the Freedom House report "In 2011, the government took concrete steps to fulfill longstanding and often repeated promises to confront corruption. E-government services reduced opportunities for bribery, while new regulations and stricter enforcement led to higher numbers of corruption lawsuits and fines against senior officials and large companies. Owing to a more consolidated government effort to eradicate corruption, Armenia’s corruption rating improves from 5.50 to 5.25."
During Sargsyan's presidency the record of the freedom of speech and the freedom of press in general also improved in Armenia. Internet penetration rose sharply - from 6.2 percent in 2008 to 37 percent in 2011, providing greater access to online media, which rapidly grew in number, including blogosphere - with over 10,000 bloggers in 2011.
After the elections Sargsyan also authorized opposition rallies to take place in Yerevan and pledged to comply with the Council of Europe's demands for an end to the government's crackdown on the opposition.
The vibrancy of the civil society has grown considerably during the last years with the the number of non-governmental organizations growing at a higher rate and with civic activists succeeding in raising public awareness and holding important campaigns in the sphere of human rights, environmental protection and social justice. However, public advocacy still has limited impact on public policy.
Read more about this topic: Serzh Sargsyan
Famous quotes containing the word presidency:
“... how often the Presidency has simply meant that a man shall be abused, distrusted, and worked to death while he is filling the great office, and that he should drop into unmerited oblivion when he has left the White House ...”
—M. E. W. Sherwood (1826–1903)
“I once told Nixon that the Presidency is like being a jackass caught in a hail storm. You’ve got to just stand there and take it.”
—Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908–1973)
“Some of the offers that have come to me would never have come if I had not been President. That means these people are trying to hire not Calvin Coolidge, but a former President of the United States. I can’t make that kind of use of the office.... I can’t do anything that might take away from the Presidency any of its dignity, or any of the faith people have in it.”
—Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933)