Sureniants: Parliamentary opposition is in a deep crisis

“The parliamentary opposition is in a deep crisis, regardless of the extent of vote rigging in the elections to Yerevan Council of Elders,” political scientist Suren Sureniants told the correspondent of Aysor.am, when discussing the opposition forces’ results in the May 5 Yerevan municipal elections and the current situation in the opposition camp.

In his words, the parliamentary opposition, namely Armenian National Congress (HAK) and ARF-Dashnaktsutyun , suffered an obvious defeat in the Yerevan elections.

“The two parties indirectly admit this fact, justifying it by emigration of part of their electorate from Armenia, pressure put by Republican Party, and so on,” Sureniants noted.

According to the political scientist, voters did not forgive these political forces for leaving people alone during the last presidential elections. “Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK) received 30,000 fewer votes during the elections to Yerevan Council than in last year’s parliamentary elections,” Sureniants said.

In his words, presidential elections are a control check of voters who punished HAK, BHK and ARFD for their refusal to run in the presidential elections.

In the opinion of S. Sureniants, during the May 5 elections to Yerevan Council, BHK collected part of the votes of HAK and ARFD, while Hello Yerevan bloc of parties received approximately the same number of votes as during the parliamentary elections.