On Saturday, the ARF discussed its seven-point agenda with the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) and the President of the Republic of Armenia. And today, during ARF Bureau representative Hrant Margaryan’s meeting with journalists, it became clear that President of the Republic of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan was against the proposal of the ARF to switch to a parliamentary system of government.
Let us remind that the Armenian National Congress (ANC) was also against some principles put forward by the ARF. Taking into account the situation regarding the ARF, how may the ARF participate in the upcoming presidential election in the Republic of Armenia? Political scientist Hrant Melik-Shahnazaryan noted during a conversation with www.aravot.am: “Before the election, the ARF is looking for allies on the political stage, but it is obvious that the main parties have their own candidates, and there can hardly be any cooperation. Perhaps, the ARF will be left with the option to nominate its own candidate.
“I think the ARF will participate in the election somehow. If it doesn’t succeed in finding allies among parties, it certainly will participate with its own candidate. Otherwise, the party will suffer quite serious losses, losing dividends; its positions in Armenia will further weaken.”
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Karen Kocharyan, a political technologist, said in this regard: “Hrant Margaryan also stated in an interview today that they might endorse some candidate, might boycott or have a candidate of their own. They don’t know themselves yet what they will do, how can I know?”
In response to a question whether it testified to the fact that he ARF positions on the internal political stage had weakened, Mr. Kocharyan said the following: “The ARF positions have weakened, to say the least. The ARF is the only political force that still has or could have or could still have a really serious political structure, which it has proved for 120 years. They have had crises in those 120 years. It is a normal thing; it is just that now they have hit the bottom. It is an inner-party crisis rather than the weakening of their positions on the political stage. However, their positions on the political stage have weakened because of that too.”
Tatev HARUTYUNYAN
