David Stepanyan, Yerevan. Exclusively to Vestnik Kavkaza
See Part 1 http://vestnikkavkaza.net/articles/politics/40329.html
The opposition doesn’t intend to accept “the republican” activity. “Hello, Yerevan!” and the ANC plan to appeal to the Administrative Court for recognizing the results of the elections in the Council of the Elders of Yerevan invalid. At the same time, Prosperous Armenia which presents itself as the opposition didn’t follow an example of the opposition camp. According to the secretary of the parliamentary fraction of the party, Naira Zograbyan, “after long discussions Prosperous Armenia has made a decision to accept its mandates in the Council of the Elders of Yerevan.” According to Zograbyan, the moral responsibility to thousands of Yerevan residents who voted for PA doesn’t let the party reject mandates.
Considering the true motivation of PA which made the party participate in the elections of the mayor, this intention cannot be a surprise. Participation of Prosperous Armenia in the elections of May 5th dispersed the opposition votes and let the republicans win. In this uneasy task PA was supported by the ANC, Dashnaktsutyun and even Orinats Erkir which easily drew protest electorate over to its side. As the result, the bloc “Hello, Yerevan!” by Ovannisyan who got almost 43% in the presidential elections gained only 8.5% in the elections to the Council of the Elders. Therefore, playing in the opposition games at ballot stations, Tsarukyan’s party brought grist to the republicans’ mill.
According to the head of the Armenian Institute of National and Strategic Studies, Manvel Sarkisyan, PA became a key figure in hands of the ruling regime, through which a deep gap between the republicans and the bloc “Hello, Yerevan!” was established. In the end of the last year PA, the ANC, and Dashnaktsutyun rejected participation in the presidential elections, explaining it by the fact that their results were predetermined by the authorities. At the same time, the same parties suddenly began to state that the elections of Yerevan’s mayor were a real chance to change the leadership in Yerevan. So, these three parties appeared to be short-sighted when decided to take part in the mayor elections. Probably, they appeared to be simple implementers of the republicans’ will, and this idea seems to be truthful, unfortunately.
