YEREVAN. – Armenia’s opposition Heritage Party Chairman, former FM Raffi Hovannisian—who is declared runner-up to the winner, incumbent President Serzh Sargsyan, as a result of the presidential election that was conducted on February 18, but who claims to be the real winner in the vote and who declared a hunger strike on March 10 at capital city Yerevan’s Liberty Square—will not run in the Yerevan Council election, which is slated for May 5. Hovannisian himself informed this during a press conference at the square on Thursday.

“[But] once our [party] list [for the election] is issued, you may pose the remaining questions about the municipal election to our candidates, or our spokesperson,” he noted.    

To the remark that the authorities assure that the Council election will be conducted freely and fairly, Hovannisian responded as follows:

“The primary falsifying force on February 18 is the party [that is, the ruling Republican Party] led by Sargsyan himself, and no one from that party has any right to speak about free, fair elections.” 

As per Hovannisian, they will wage a battle so that the authorities will not be able to rig the Yerevan election.  

“The municipal election will not replace our national awakening, the collective commitment of the Armenian people; it will be solely a front in this struggle,” he noted. 

To the query as to whether the authorities have attempted to meet with him after President Sargsyan’s recent interview with a group of journalists, Heritage’s leader specifically said:

“We are prepared to meet and listen to his [that is, Sargsyan’s] proposals even after all this. But what has come by way of mediation is a mockery of the Armenian people. If they are prepared to offer a nationwide solution to the Armenian people, I am ready to meet. And this meeting is indispensable so that the string of lies is no longer made from the presidential residence.”         

Photo by Arsen Sargsyan/NEWS.am