The Armenian National Congress informs that they will participate in the upcoming mayoral elections in Yerevan. They will make a final decision who will lead the proportional list during next week. Also next week the Heritage party will make a final decision whether to join the opposition’s proportional list or participate in the mayoral elections with a separate proportional list.
“Such issues are not easy to decide,” says the Heritage party board president Anahit Bakhshyan. She says that the Heritage is still negotiating with the ANC but has not made a final decision whether to join the ANC or no. “It’s really difficult to make such decision. We were the one to come up with announcement and suggest the ANC to cooperate, and now we should drive this process till the end,” says Anahit Bakhshyan. Certainly it is important to the Heritage whether the party lists will be led by their candidate or no. “There are problems but we should discuss all issues. Everything is important to us,” said the Heritage party board president.
No one knows yet who will lead the proportional list of the ANC. Rumors say that the most potential candidate to be nominated by the ANC is PPA leader Stepan Demirchyan, however the Congress has not made a final decision yet. We have information that Stepan Demirchyan does not want to lead the mentioned proportional list either. There are also rumors saying that political prisoners will be involved in the ANC’s proportional lists as well (except for MP Sasun Mikayleyan, who does not have residency of Yerevan for the past three years).
Certainly there are many people who want to be the first candidate in the ANC’s proportional list, but the person who many people wish could be in the first place is not included in the list. The authorities are discussing the issue of the opposition’s most possible candidate to run for the mayoral elections. Based on such information, the best candidate the government would wish to see in the first place of the opposition’s proportional list is Stepan Demirchyan. Pro-government parties say that if the opposition nominates Stepan Demirchyan in the first place, it will be hard for them to compete with him. The authorities hope that due to certain processes the mentioned candidate will refuse to run and it will be easier for them to win. Yesterday there were rumors in the parliament saying that the authorities had already decided the portions political parties will have in the mayoral elections. All such rumors are conditional because there is no correct information what the opposition is going to do. As for Heritage party, the government does not worry about it. While the ANC is discussing the issue who to nominate in the first places, the authorities are discussing the “preliminary proportion” of the votes. Thus, the Rule of Law will be given 5-6% of the votes (the coalition partners of this party have evaluated that after the presidential election the RL has lost the reputation and if the elections proceed in fair conditions they will not get even 4% of votes). ARF will be given 8-9% of the votes. These are not the final figures and may be changed. According to the same scenario, the Prosperous Armenia party will get 10-12% of votes. All the mentioned information may be changed after the ANC makes a final decision.