YEREVAN. - The local self government elections in Gyumri and Vanadzor cities showed that the Armenian National Congress (ANC) has lost its place in the political spectrum.  

Head of the Armenian Institute of International and Security Affairs (AIISA), Stepan Safaryan, said the aforementioned to Armenian News – NEWS.am.

In his words, if the ANC once used to effectively control the radical opposition cohort, now it has turned into a moderate opposition force without enjoying the support of relevant voters.

“From this point of view, the possibility that ANC may record the desired results in the upcoming parliamentary elections is very disputable,” Safaryan stressed.

Touching on the question as to whether this isn’t the result of seeking to engage in radical opposition rhetoric and then moving to negotiating with the authorities on certain issues, the political analyst said: “By shifting from radical rhetoric to a more moderate and constructive one and from boycotting and rejecting position to a negotiating conduct, they lost their voters, who proved to support such a radical group as Sasna Tsrer. Consequently, they didn’t get the support of new voters. For this reason, the recorded results are very bad in terms of speaking about the victory or opportunities of this party in overcoming the required threshold during the upcoming parliamentary elections,” Safaryan concluded.