It turns out that the Armenian opposition really wants to help the current Armenian authorities regenerate and is doing everything possible with the hope that it will also regenerate. However, all the political parties calling themselves the opposition will participate alone in the upcoming parliamentary elections without forming an alliance with any party. As a result, it turns out that the Armenian opposition will participate in 14-15 fragments during the National Assembly elections and this is probably the maximum amount. The Armenian Popular Party, “National Unity”, “Republic”, the Armenian National Movement, “Country of Law”, “ZHUK” , the National Democratic Alliance, “Alliance”, the Popular Party (Tigran Karapetyan’s political party), the Communist Party and especially the “Inheritance” and “New Times” political parties will participate alone in the elections (the mentioned political parties have declared themselves the opposition).
The Armenian opposition had never been in such a situation in the history of the third republic of Armenia. Parallel to all this, a small oppositional alliance has been formed. A couple of days ago, Armenia’s conservative and “Democratic Homeland” political parties had presented the necessary documents to the Central Electoral Commission for forming the “Impeachment” pre-electoral alliance. This alliance intends on starting the process of President Robert Kocharyan’s impeachment process upon getting elected to parliament. The proposal of forming this alliance was made on February 20 during the meeting held by the “Alternative” NGO-political organization. Member of the “Alternative” organization and leader of “Democratic Homeland” political party Petros Makeyan told “168 Hours” that when “Alternative” proposed forming an “Impeachment” alliance, “it implied that everyone had to unite”.
“Since there was no reply from them (other oppositional parties-R.T.) by the fixed deadline, the initiative was taken by the two political parties and the “Alternative” organization,” mentioned Makeyan.
Leader of “New Times” political party Aram Karapetyan told “168 Hours” that the “New Times” party is still undecided as to how it will participate in the elections. A. Karapetyan also said that “consultations are in the process and nothing is excluded”. So, is it possible that “New Times” will participate in the elections with an alliance? In response to this question, Karapetyan said:
“I don’t exclude anything, but it is not that possible for us to participate with an alliance.”
“168 Hours” tried to find out which parties they are “consulting” with because it is already clear that a majority of oppositional political parties are going to take part in the elections alone. Karapetyan refused to mentioned the names of those parties, but he promised that the “New Times” party would make an announcement on that.
It also turns out that although leader of “Inheritance” Raffi Hovhannisyan recently announced that he is “not a careerist”, is in favor of “big solutions of the opposition” and is ready to be in the 10th place of the list of any alliance to be formed; however, according to some sources, the failure of the pre-electoral alliance between the National Democratic Union, the Armenian National Movement, “Republic” and “Inheritance” party was mainly due to the position of Raffi Hovhannisyan. In f act, the National Democratic Union decided to not participate in the upcoming National Assembly elections at all during a session on Wednesday. Head of the NDU administration Vazgen Manukyan said that it was decided during the administration session that the NDU would participate neither in the proportional nor majority electoral systems of the parliamentary elections, nor would it be enlisted in the lists of other political parties and/or alliances. It also became clear that the Armenian Popular Party (APP) has proposed to leader of “National Rebirth” party Albert Bazeyan to be the second on their proportional list; however Bazeyan has asked for time to consult with his partisans. During the session of the “National Rebirth” party’s political board meeting, it was decided to approve the proposal and Bazeyan has been included in the APP proportional list. During the Wednesday session, the APP administration confirmed the party’s proportional list. APP representative Ruzan Khachatryan told “168 Hours” that besides Bazeyan, the rest of the people on the list are members of APP. Vice-president of the Armenian National Movement administration Andranik Hovakimyan said that during its session, the Armenian National Movement administration decided to participate alone in the elections, however the proportional list is not ready and will be checked “on the deadlines constituted by law”. As for the “Republic” party, it was checking the proportional list until late night Wednesday. A session was also held by the “Inheritance” political party administration. Regardless of the formed and to be formed lists, it is clear that the opposition did not use its resources before the elections and we already have a clear picture of who is going to be in the National Assembly after May 12. So, if no surprises come up, besides the Armenian Republican Party, the “Prosperous Armenia” party and the ARF, we may see a couple of “fortunate oppositionists” from the Armenian Popular Party, the “Country of Law” party and “National Unity”, as well as Tigran Karapetyan with some of the former “Country of Law” members, if you wish. In fact, the political parties declaring themselves the opposition may get 25-30 mandates in the National Assembly in the best case scenario. The ARF will have as many mandates as it does now and the rest of the seats will be distributed equally between the Republican and “Prosperous Armenia” parties. The fact that the political parties declaring themselves the opposition did not unite as one goes to show that the opposition is fighting not to come to power, but to stay in the oppositional field.