YEREVAN. – There will be populist actions and crowd-pleasing phenomena during the upcoming parliamentary elections, National Assembly (NA) Deputy Speaker and the ruling coalition’s Republican Party of Armenia spokesperson Eduard Sharmazanov stated, during a press conference on Monday, adding they will do everything possible so that the election campaign is conducted on a level playing field.       

“The authorities must be more tolerant. I expect for the [political] forces to choose the road of mutual respect, and not of insults,” he stressed.  

And in response to the observation that opposition ARF Dashnaktsutyun Party’s NA Faction leader Vahan Hovhannisyan had recently stated that the parties in power are holding charity events and distributing party-membership cards, Eduard Sharmazanov said: “That statement is not a surprise. The opposition must criticize what has and has not been done. I do not agree with that statement.”