YEREVAN. - Armenia will remain on the threshold of constitutional coup until the 2012 parliamentary elections, the chairman of the Union of Political Scientists of Armenia Hamayak Hovhannisyan told a press conference on Monday.

According to him, the current format of dialogue between the ruling coalition and opposition Armenian National Congress is an outright manifestation of constitutional violations.

“Sidestepping all social institutions provided by the Constitution, including the parliament, a group is formed to take the responsibility of making political decisions. The coalition states its readiness to dialogue on any issue, but why not make it in Parliament?

Let them invite the opposition to the parliament and decide on all raised questions there. Current format of dialogue is not stipulated by the Constitution, however, it prevailed over the Constitutional one. It is at least beginning of a constitutional coup,” said Hovhannisyan.

The expert argued that creation of a joint negotiating group does not bring closer the possibility of early elections at all.

“On the contrary, the authorities gain effective counterarguments. If early elections were needed to ensure means for dialogue, now the dialogue is already in progress, therefore the authorities can state the irrelevance of early elections,” said the expert.

He added that early elections are a more legitimate measure than the current dialogue.