YEREVAN. - The Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) weakens the opposition through bribing people. 

Head of the Institute for International and Security Affairs and political analyst Stepan Safaryan told the aforementioned to Armenian News – NEWS.am.

“If the RPA feels comfortable about its victory in the elections, in which the voters showed passivity, it has a deep problem.  Exactly RPA seemed to have stated that strong opposition plays into their hand and that it wants to see an established party system, the Constitution having been changed for this very reason. But it turned out that through bribing people RPA itself weakens the opposition,” Safaryan said.

The statement of Mamikon Aslanyan, who topped the RPA list in Vanadzor elections, on that he expected 23 votes, is also unclear for the analyst: “One could ask how he could expect to win 23 votes if he hadn’t received 23 mandates. They should either really state that some factions presenting themselves as opposition ones are their partners or that their faction has expanded at the expense of four opposition figures, who voted for their candidate. Or else they should confess that they bribed people.”

Everyone thinks that members of the Armenian Revival Party voted for the RPA candidate in exchange for closing the case on the fight involving Arkadi Peleshyan, who topped the Armenian Revival list during the Vanadzor elections, Safaryan noted.

“I rule out the possibility that these were the votes of Bright Armenia. I think the votes for the RPA belonged to Armenian Revival or Prosperous Armenia parties. But I am more inclined to believe in the version regarding Armenian Revival, since exactly their candidate appeared in a criminal story recently, having beaten up a pastor. The complaints regarding this case are taken back, which I think is no coincidence. The statement of [the leader of Armenian Revival faction] Heghine Bisharyan on that this wasn’t a fight but merely a scuffle was also no coincidence,” the analyst stressed.