“Azatutyun.am”: Former President Levon Ter-Petrosian continued to attack his successor Robert Kocharian and Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian on Monday, saying that their bitter rivalry will make the upcoming parliamentary elections the “most dangerous” in Armenia’s history.
Ter-Petrosian claimed that they are ready to do everything to win the snap elections scheduled for June 20.
“It’s a battle between their resources and supporters for now,” he said. “They will not content themselves with that. There will be thousands of irregularities by both sides during the elections. In case of thousands of irregularities there will definitely be incidents inside polling stations that could get out of control.”
Speaking during the official presentation of the election manifesto of his Armenian National Congress (HAK) party, Ter-Petrosian also said Pashinian and Kocharian are motivated by personal revenge and never fulfill their promises. “They have said one thing but done a totally different thing,” he said.
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Last month Ter-Petrosian publicly called on Kocharian and the other former Armenian president, Serzh Sarkisian, to lead together with him a broad-based opposition alliance and try to unseat Pashinian. He said they also must also pledge not to seek the post of prime minister in the event of their bloc’s victory. Both men turned down the proposal.
Ter-Petrosian, who had served as Armenia’s first president from 1991-1998, insisted that an electoral alliance of the three ex-presidents would have left Pashinian without any chance of reelection.
Pashinian last week invited Ter-Petrosian, Kocharian and Sarkisian to a live televised debate. All three men dismissed the offer.
“I turned down Pashinian out of pity,” Ter-Petrosian explained on Monday. “I took pity on him because that debate could have meant a [political] suicide for Nikol.”
Pashinian played a major role in Ter-Petrosian’s 2008 opposition movement. He subsequently fell out with the 76-year-old ex-president and set up his own party.