YEREVAN. – It is still too early to use the word “joining” for all the pre-electoral initiatives, albeit Armenia’s opposition Heritage Party is interested in partaking in them, if these two formats satisfy our demands, Heritage’s Parliamentary Faction leader Stepan Safaryan told Armenian News-NEWS.am.  

In his words, activities are currently underway with the format of these two initiatives. “The National Assembly [NA] Speaker-affiliated [Electoral Process and Electoral Code Application Monitoring] Working Group has already held a meeting,” Safaryan noted. 

And according to Safaryan, Heritage’s leader Raffi Hovannisian has already expressed his view concerning the second initiative. “It is very important that the matter of accountability be resolved, too. And that is why it was proposed to sign under the text on an election oversight mechanism,” Stepan Safaryan stated.

Reflecting on the ruling coalition’s Republican Party of Armenia Executive Board member and NA Standing Committee on State and Legal Affairs Chairman Davit Harutyunyan’s initiative to open a united intra-party office to monitor the country’s forthcoming NA elections, Safaryan noted: “This proposal is not being discussed. This proposal is not sufficient enough to resolve numerous problems.”   

To note, the opposition bloc Armenian National Congress, the ruling coalition’s Prosperous Armenia Party, and the opposition ARF Dashnaktsutyun and Heritage party’s on April 4 signed an agreement on establishing a joint headquarters to oversee the forthcoming National Assembly elections. But the ruling coalition’s Republican Party of Armenia representative Galust Sahakyan did not sign under the agreement     

Also, Davit Harutyunyan offered, on April 5, a proposal to design rules for holding the NA elections in a civilized manner.