Local elections were held Sunday in 19 communities in Armenia, and as a result, ruling Civil Contract (CC) Party candidates and pro-CC forces won a landslide victory. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on Monday stated this during a live broadcast on his Facebook page.

“I had promised during the parliamentary elections [on June 7] that (...) the spy forces, the three-headed, four-headed party of war, must be destroyed. According to the results of the local elections, we see that this has happened with the help and support of the citizens of Armenia.

But on the other hand, I want to say honestly and directly as a person who assumed the post of Prime Minister of Armenia as a result of the popular, non-violent, velvet revolution of 2018, I am not at all happy that the CC has received 90+, 80+, 70+ votes in a number of communities, because no matter how pleasant it may seem at first glance, these percentages evoke certain associations, but they also raise the issue of the opposition in Armenia.

We must correctly assess the situation. On the one hand, we must truly eradicate the spy opposition—which is controlled from abroad—from Armenia. But on the other hand, Armenia must have a state-centered opposition,” he added.

Pashinyan informed that the issue was discussed in various formats on what the Armenian government should do to form a new opposition, and the conclusion is that nothing should be done, not to be practical and active in this regard. Otherwise, it is possible to fall into a worse situation; namely, into an attempt to restore the worst practices previously formed in Armenia.

You remember: there was a ‘client’ and a ‘manageable’ opposition in Armenia; this is equally a disaster for Armenia. But I think a new, state-centered opposition should be formed in Armenia, and a real opposition that would engage in real political activity, not espionage.

The fact that this is a necessity is obvious. But on the other hand, the [Armenian] government cannot and should not create an opposition, because it would be a managed opposition, a false opposition. The solution is for the non-governmental, state-centered forces of Armenia to become more active.

We [i.e. the incumbent Armenian authorities], naturally, cannot help, support them, but we will not hinder them in anything, and we are interested in the formation of an opposition in Armenia that operates based on the interests of Armenia, based on the interests of the Armenian people, and is based on democratic values, not [on] election bribes, or that operates in the direction of investing the stolen, the plundered in politics and turning it into a tool to protect the plundered," the Armenian premier added.