YEREVAN. – There is no public activeness in Armenia in the lead-up to the presidential elections because that activeness should have been created by the political opposition which, however, has lost the people’s confidence, ruling Republican Party (RPA) National Assembly Faction Secretary Hovhannes Sahakyan stated during a press conference on Monday.  

To the remark that, in its turn, the opposition blames the ruling party for social passiveness because the people no longer believe in fair elections in Armenia, the MP responded: “I don’t think so. We all recall the demonstrations organized by the opposition. And we can recall how many people were gathered at [capital city Yerevan’s] Liberty Square. [But] Now, it does not have such opportunity.”  

Adding that the opposition used to bring the people to the demonstrations en masse, representative of the ruling party said: “In the case when we thought two years ago, and prior to the [May 6, 2012] parliamentary elections, that [opposition bloc] Armenian National Congress would receive 20-25 percent of the votes, the elections in May showed that this force had received 7 percent and had not even appealed the [election] results. So, this was an anticipated result for them.”    

Photo by Arsen Sargsyan/NEWS.am