YEREVAN. – Despite their statements, 80 percent of those in the opposition arena of Armenia do not want snap parliamentary elections. National Assembly (NA) vice speaker Alen Simonyan, a member of the majority My Step faction, on Wednesday told about this to reporters in the NA.

To the remark that the opposition members say that it is the government that does not want snap elections elections, the NA deputy chairman said: "Both all the surveys and the attitude of the people speak of something else. If Mr. [Edmon] Marukyan [chairman of the opposition Bright Armenia Party and head of its parliamentary faction] says such a thing, he can refer to the survey of the embassy, of the organization he wants, or he can order a survey and see in which case they pass the 1-percent threshold.”

To the question why the government does not want to reach an agreement with the opposition and hold the elections by June 1, Simonyan responded: "The meaning of the election is to bring stability in the political field, and one of its components is that the political forces represented in the NA today also participate in that process. The ruling power is going for snap elections to defuse the internal political situation; [but] to do it alone is not that right, politically. There is no clarification regarding the timeframes, there is a discussion with the forces I mentioned, we want the time frames to be in line with them as well.

We also have issues with the Electoral Code that need to be resolved. We have said many times that the 'rating' [election] system needs to change [in Armenia]. Now we need to determine what is more important today. That is, should we postpone the elections for a while in order to change the [Electoral] Code? Or should we hold elections soon, but under the old [Electoral] Code? ”