YEREVAN. – Well-informed sources have learned that Armenia’s opposition Heritage Party Chairman, former FM Raffi Hovannisian—who was 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—was offered, almost openly, to head, for example, the country’s Control Chamber (CC), Zhoghovurd daily reports.     

“At the same time, Serzh Sargsyan made that offer more than once, even indirectly. The thing is that CC Chairman Ishkhan Zakaryan’s Constitutionally-specified 6-year tenure will come to an end in November.

But in an interview with Zhoghovurd, Heritage’s Vice-Chairman Stepan Safaryan denied this news. According to him, Sargsyan solely made one offer to Hovannisian: to head the Constitutional reforms group, which, however, Heritage’s leader turned down.    

In Safaryan’s words, perhaps there was such impression after when, in his last letter, Sargsyan said their [that is, his and Hovannisian’s] ideas about the functions of control overlap,” Zhoghovurd writes.