YEREVAN. - The ‘No to Plunder’ initiative [struggling against electricity price hike in Armenia] must organize rally-marches along with the [already ongoing] sit-in to impact the authorities,  Armenia’s Founding Parliament civil initiative member Varuzhan Avetisyan told Armenian News – NEWS.am on Saturday. Avetsiyan said they had made a number of proposals to the initiative, which were either declined or ignored.

“I think merely the sit-in is not enough to influence the regime. More effective measures are needed. We have already announced that all issues in our country must have a political solution, i.e. the regime must be removed,” he said.

As reported earlier, during the protest against electricity price hike, ‘No to Plunder’ initiative suddenly announced they are launching a 3-day sit-in in the Liberty Square, setting a deadline for the authorities till 19:00 Monday evening. In case the decision on electricity price hike isn’t revoked, they are planning to march to the president’s residence.

Despite the numerous protest actions over the electricity price hike, the new electricity tariff was approved at the session of Armenia’s Public Services Regulatory Commission of Armenia (PSRC) on June 17.  The electricity price has gone up by 6,93 AMD, reaching 48,78 AMD (previously 41,85 AMD) per 1 kWh.  Electric Networks of Armenia (ENA) CJSC had proposed to raise the electricity price by 17 AMD per 1 kWh.