The New Armenia Public Salvation Front launched a round-the-clock sit-in on Yerevan’s Liberty Square yesterday after the opposition march against the constitutional amendments to the country's constitution. The participants stayed the whole night on the Liberty Square. It is expected that the protesters will stay overnight in the Square in shifts.
The opposition movement brought together the former Foreign Minister of Armenia, the Heritage party leader Raffi Hovannisian, a representative of the protest movement 'Rise, Armenia!', a former candidate for president of Armenia, Andrias Ghukasyan, the chairman of the socio-political organization ‘Constitutive Parliament’, Garegin Chukaszyan, the chairman of the Democratic Homeland opposition party, Petros Makeyan, and the chairman of the Union of Political Scientists of Armenia, Amayak Hovhannisyan.
Several ‘Constitutive Parliament’ activists were detained by police officers, but released a few hours later.
Another rally will be held today at Freedom Square at 18:00, which will be followed by a march, Novosti-Armenia reports.
The referendum on constitutional amendments, particularly the transition from a presidential to a parliamentary form of governance, will be held on December 6.
A representative of the Armenian National Congress, Aram Manukyan, told Vestnik Kavkaza about the state of the opposition movement in Armenia before the referendum. He said the ANC party has an agreement on exchange of information, as well as "our chairman yesterday addressed the meeting, so we have very good relations with the rest of the opposition."
According to the deputy, the last few months before the referendum were used in order to explain to people the true reasons for Serzh Sargsyan's constitutional reform.
"I have traveled from the south to the north of the country for 25 days. And I met not only our activists, but also ordinary people. I'll tell you, even they didn't read the draft and do not have the information, they are clearly aware that it is only Serzh Sargsyan's desire to continue his rule," he said.
According to Manukyan, he met with 10-15 thousand people in the last month. In addition, his colleagues have also organized similar trips around the country. According to the deputy, 80% of the Armenian population oppose the constitutional changes, which means a transition to a parliamentary form of governance.
Aram Manukyan believes that, if the government loses the referendum, it doesn't necessarily mean regime change in the country.
The vice president of the ANC, Levon Zurabyan, said that "the 'No' front is carrying out various protests." "In particular, the ANC and the Joint Staff of the ANC and the People's Party of Armenia are planning to hold a big rally tomorrow, on December 3, on Liberty Square. But this is not the first rally – we have been holding them for a long time. We are cooperating with other parties participating in the 'No' front," he said.
According to Zurabyan, the main goal of the opposition on the referendum has been achieved in recent months, because, in fact, the vote turned into a "vote of no confidence in Serzh Sargsyan's regime." "Most of the people understand perfectly that the transition to a parliamentary model is just an opportunity for Serzh Sargsyan to circumvent the constitutional ban on a third term as president. And such a system is being created, in which the ruling party has guaranteed purchase of an absolute majority in Parliament, and Serzh Sargsyan will continue to be the de facto leader of the country just being the Secretary General. In general, the situation is getting out of the authorities's control," the deputy stated.
However, in his opinion, such mass support does not mean that as the result of the referendum there will be a 90% 'no' vote, because there is a system in Armenia where 'it's not important who votes, but it is important who counts the results."
"We have even caught the chairman of a local electoral commission, who offered a bribe of 100 thousand drams. We provided the material to the prosecutor. The prosecutor's office was forced to arrest the chairman under the pressure of facts. And this is not an isolated case, it happens at almost all the polling stations," he said.
"The result of the referendum depends on two factors: the people's votes and the regime's ability to falsify the results. If all people will vote, according to our estimates, 400-500 thousand votes may not be enough to get the necessary result of 700 thousand 'yes' to the new version of the Constitution," Zurabyan suggests.
"I think that Serzh Sargsyan will be faced with a choice on voting day: he will either accept the will of the people, or he can carry out incredibly large falsifications, which, of course, will cause a great uproar among the people. We will hold a rally on December 7, which is the day after the referendum, in order to summarize," he summed up.
