According to the information of www.aravot.am, during the meeting of the Prisoners of Conscience NGO established under the auspices of the Armenian National Congress (ANC) that took place behind closed doors last week, a decision was made to call on the Republic Party on behalf of the organization and the ANC to take back its decision of nominating only party leader Aram Sargsyan for the proportional representation and to nominate the former prisoners of conscience both on the list and in the majoritarian polling stations.
Talking about this issue during a conversation with us, leader of the Republic Party Aram Sargsyan said, “The political council of the Republic Party has made a political decision and any decision after it is meaningless and is not worth commenting on. There are serious people in the political council. They have big experience and that kind of decisions are not made easily, therefore, there is no need for further discussions on that matter. As for majoritarian nominations, I have said before which members of the party could guarantee a real struggle and win in the election through majoritarian representation and in some cases could guarantee votes for the ANC list and I stick to that opinion. We will put forward our position in the Congress today. There are people who have given their consent to be nominated through majoritarian representation and they are more than 10, there are also people who don’t see any problem in it as of today.”
Aram Sargsyan was asked whether that decision, however, had been made at the request or the behest of the ANC, whether the Republic Party had made such a decision by itself. “There has been no issue of a request. The party conducts political activities and I am convinced that the party is the most independent party on the political stage these days, it is free of any internal and external political or even inner-Congressional influence and makes every decision given its appropriateness and to the benefit of our country and people,” stated the Republic Party leader. In response to a request for clarification why the party had changed the decision and had decided to make nominations for the majoritarian representation, Aram Sargsyan said, “No, there is no such thing. Our statement was about the party list, where the party will be represented only by the party leader.”
And whether there were people among those nominated by the Republic Party for the majoritarian representation, whose names Aram Sargsyan had made public on one occasion, namely Rafik Mkrtchyan, Suren Abrahamyan, Ashot Zakaryan, Zhora Sapeyan etc. “Yes, mainly and mostly there are. There are people who refused to be included in the party list, there are also new people who want to be on the list and they have a real opportunity. However, the issue of the list is still under discussion. The Congress should consider who can be nominated in which polling station, also who can be nominated from the partner parties and only after discussing their possibilities, the names of candidates will be made public.”
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