YEREVAN. – The opposition Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP) will go to the snap parliamentary elections—slated for June 20—on its own. Mikayel Melkumyan, a member of the opposition Prosperous Armenia faction, on Tuesday told about this to reporters in the National Assembly, adding that for the last 15 years the PAP has always been in the parliament as a political force, always being the second force in the legislature.

"It is very important who you go to the elections with and what you go with; that is, with what political team and with what program. We [the PAP] shall go [to these elections] to win and it will happen. We will definitely win, and the fact that win does not assume that any force will get 50 percent + 1 vote. There will be a balanced government; but I reaffirm that [PAP leader and business tycoon] Gagik Tsarukyan will be the head of state. Preconditions have been created today that a leader of a political force that has never been in power shall come to power," Melkumyan said.

And asked whether it can be concluded from what has been said that the PAP will form a coalition with other forces, but on the condition that Tsarukyan be the Prime Minister, the PAP lawmaker said that they do not currently discuss the issue of coalitions. "There will be a balanced government. When you win, a new situation arises, and according to that, a decision will be made on how we are moving forward. We do not say now with which force and how because we still do not know who will run [in the elections] and what percentage [of the votes] they will garner. And if we [the PAP] win, who will be the leader of the country, if not our candidate?”