YEREVAN. – Armenian presidential candidate Andreas Ghukasyan’s proposal to the other contenders to jointly withdraw their presidential nominations is ineffective and it will not achieve the necessary result, another presidential hopeful, unemployed epos specialist Vardan Sedrakyan told Armenian News-NEWS.am.   

In his words, even if all presidential contenders respond positively to Ghukasyan’s proposal, ruling Republican Party leader—and incumbent President—Serzh Sargsyan will hold the forthcoming presidential elections on his own, since this is permitted by the Electoral Code.   

“Sargsyan will secure a modest 54 percent of the votes, become president [again], [and] subsequently, members of the ruling party will state: ‘See, we were saying that the other candidates are not serious challengers. And by realizing this, they resorted to a withdrawal [of their nominations],’” Vardan Sedrakyan maintained.  

As Armenian News-NEWS.am informed earlier, presidential nominee, political scientist Andreas Ghukasyan issued a letter of petition to other presidential candidates—namely, Aram Harutyunyan, Arman Melikyan, Hrant Bagratyan, Paruyr Hayrikyan, Vardan Sedrakyan, and Raffi Hovannisian. 

“In actual fact, the body politic [of Armenia] is deprived of its Constitution. Today, we have a right to form a new political agenda for Armenia. At the same time, the responsibility to determine the country’s political future is placed upon us.  

I [hereby] propose to jointly leave the campaign for the [presidential] elections, which the [ruling Republican Party] RPA has designed and predetermined, and to unanimously launch a universal civil movement for radical changes.

The body politic awaits practical steps from us. I [therefore] call to start, with a united withdrawal [from the presidential candidacies] as of January 15 of this year, a new political situation in Armenia,” Andreas Ghukasyan’s letter read in particular.