YEREVAN. – For us elections are becoming a difficult and painful experience because over the course of the past twenty years the authorities have put before themselves the task of maintaining and expanding their positions, chairman Hmayak Hovhannisyan of the Politologists’ Union of Armenia stated during a press conference on Friday.

In his words, the present pre-election situation inspires no hope that the authorities would surmount the desire to maintain and expand power at any cost.

Hovhannisyan noted that the society reacts to the sessions of ruling coalition’s Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) in the same way as they used to react to the plenum, or Bureau sessions of the Communist Party.  

Hmayak Hovhannisyan also expressed a conviction that RPA cannot maintain its positions without election bribe. “The ruling party has saddled the state apparatus and is making [the latter] serve its interests,” Hovhannisyan argued.