RFE/RL reports on a new U.S. funded poll that confirms what most of us feared anyway. Democracy is dead in Armenia, although that presupposes that it was alive at some point . However, there’s no doubt that the situation has significantly deteriorated since the deeply flawed 2003 presidential and parliamentary elections.

The survey commissioned by the U.S. Agency for International Development was conducted in late April and early May by three Western non-governmental organizations, including the U.S. International Republican Institute and Gallup. Some 1,200 respondents across Armenia were asked to express their opinion on a broad range of issues, including democracy building, the economy and the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Fifty-five percent of them said Armenia is on the wrong track and only 32 percent claimed the opposite. The critical evaluation appears to primarily stem from lingering socioeconomic problems which, according to the poll, top the list of ordinary Armenians’ preoccupations.

Nearly half of those polled described high unemployment as the most pressing challenge facing the country. The overall socioeconomic situation was the second most frequently mentioned issue, followed by the unsolved Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the near-term resolution of which is considered “very important” by about 80 percent of Armenians. By comparison, only 4 percent singled out the need for international recognition of the 1915 Armenian genocide.

Although 42 percent of respondents admitted that the economic situation in Armenia has improved in recent years, only 23 percent said they and their families have become better off as a result.

The poll also exposed popular concerns about political problems such as vote rigging and human rights abuses, with 58 percent seeing a serious lack of democracy in the country. Its findings also suggest that Armenians widely distrust their government’s assurances that the next parliamentary and presidential elections, due in 2007 and 2008 respectively, will be more democratic than the ones held in the past and strongly criticized by the West. Seventy percent of them do not think that the 2007 elections will be free and fair, according to the survey.

On a related note, a Yerevan court has upheld the pre-trial detention of the editor of a pro-opposition newspaper accused of draft-dodging. This news comes as no surprise given that his paper is already warning of what many people fear. It is now not uncommon to hear young Armenians say they will leave the country if Zhamanak Yerevan’s forecast comes true.

“If it has been decided that Serzh Sarkisian will become a co-chairman of the Republican Party and president of Armenia in 2008, then this will be the case given the existing moribund situation,” writes “Zhamanak Yerevan.” “If it has been decided that in the upcoming parliamentary elections the National Assembly mandates will mainly be divided between the Republican Party and Prosperous Armenia, then the decision is not subject to reversal.” The paper says the Armenian authorities have ample experience in implementing such scenarios, citing the example of last November’s constitutional referendum. “No wonder that the people have become alienated not only from the authorities but also processes taking place in the country,” it says. “They don’t care even about ways of resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.”

Oh well, the beginning of the end. Now it’s up to ordinary citizens to determine the country that they would like to live in. They can either put up with the situation until they find a way to leave or they can start to engage themselves in the democratic process and demand that the next elections are an improvement over 2003. Certainly, they must realize the importance of their votes and do everything to protect them.