After the May 31 city council elections of Yerevan one of the main topics that was being discussed the political lobbies was the probability of the conduct of extraordinary parliamentary elections. Many NA MPs pledged that the Prosperous Armenia party was actively preparing for those elections. By the way this issue has become concerning for almost all the NA MPs. Part of them is scared of losing mandates and the other part is not yet sure about the selection of the political camp. During the private conservations in the corridors of the NA (the NA MPs agree to express opinion about this issue only if their name is no publicized) the most popular viewpoint is that the Prosperous Armenia party is sure that the time of extraordinary elections has ripened. And the party came to this “honest” conclusion right after the 2008 presidential elections. And this is perhaps the reason why the Prospers Armenia party runs in any kind of election (even if it’s an election of some small village head) and the party runs in a quite ceremonial manner having been sure about the expected outcome of the elections. This means that by participating in such elections the Prosperous Armenia in fact is preparing for extraordinary elections and this version was best proven during the city council race of Yerevan. The version is substantiated with the ground that after the possible conduct of extraordinary parliamentary elections there will be extraordinary presidential elections. As a matter of fact this is the ultimate goal of the Prosperous Armenia. However, for the conduct of extraordinary parliamentary elections it is first necessary to dissolve the Parliament, which is possible only in two cases. The first case is that the President dissolves the Parliament as he has the sole right to do so. This indeed is not realistic for the Prosperous Armenia scenario. The second version of the dissolution of the NA is possible if only more than half of the NA MPs quit their mandates. As a matter of fact there is no other such regulation that would serve a ground for the conduct of extraordinary parliamentary elections. And so the supports of this scenario should have at least 67 loyalists in the NA but the Prosperous Armenia only has 25 and the ARF has 16. It means that at this moment the number of the pro-Kocharyan bloc at the NA is 41 and in order to reach the final goal it is necessary to enroll extra 26 MPs. As we were informed the Prosperous Armenia has already started this process. In order to fail the plans of the Prosperous Armenia last week the Republican Party decided to “harmonize” the activities of the NA independent MPs with the Republican faction policy. For that purpose they had handed in application forms to the independent MPs, by which they agree to be recruited in the RPA faction. This means that by being aware of the Prosperous Armenia party plans the RPA has decided to overtake them by recruiting the 10 independent MPs of the NA so that the Prosperous Armenia feels deprived to “playing games.” The RPA is concerned because there is a great chance that many of the RPA MPs (16 for sure) may want to quit their mandates by being discontented with the Republican Party policies. If this happened the Prosperous Armenia would have a great shot to realize its plans. When these teetering MPs consider the return of Kocharyan realistic they will shift to his camp without hesitance. For this reason as well the RPA elite decided to prevent the process not only internally but also publicly in order to make the Prosperous Armenia, the RFA and independent MPs understand that the RPA is aware of their devious plans. By the way, in the opinion of many of the MPs by appointing the former independent MP Martun Grigoryan (currently member of the Prosperous Armenia party) to the post of the deputy-head of the NA standing committee on education, science and youth issues, the Prosperous Armenia party tried to demonstrate how it pays back to the independent MPs for their favors. Let us also mention that according to the opinions of the MPs, who are aware of these developments, in fact the current chairman of the Prosperous Armenia party Gagik Tsarukyan was trying to make the former president Kocharyan the honorable chairman of the party. As it is known, this plan failed at the last moment. After the elections of the city council of Yerevan the Prosperous Armenia has become once again active in making Kocharyan the honorable chairman of the party. As we were informed this will most probably take place in the fall. By the way, not only in the NA but also outside it certain processes are taking place to provide the smooth return of Kocharyan. For example, in this direction actively works the former minister of foreign affairs Vardan Oskanyan, the presentation of whose book was organized by the ARF in the US. On these days the ARF shows that Oskanyan is their ideologist. The fact that Oskanyan is continuing to be nonpartisan is not accidental either. By doing this Oskanyan is trying to show that he is an above-party politician. Therefore, he doesn’t rush to turn his Civilitas foundation into a party.
P.S. By the way this is the formal Constitutional way of practicing power. However, it is clear that the hope of the loyalists of Kocharyan is not this. The ones, who are interested that Kocharyan returns to politics perfectly, understand that the demand of the society for Kocharyan will never be evident. Therefore, according to our sources, Kocharyan and his team are currently working on creating this “demand” within the society.