YEREVAN. – The main peculiarity of Armenia’s parliamentary elections, which will be held this May, is that this time the battle will be waged between the current two parties in power: Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) and Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP). President Gevorg Poghosyan of the Armenian Sociological Association stated this during a press conference on Wednesday. He also informed that the Association conducted a social survey in Armenia on this topic. 

And in line with the survey results, RPA will occupy first place in the elections, PAP will come in second, and the opposition bloc Armenian National Congress (ANC) will be third. And these three forces together will receive 75 percent of the total votes. Poghosyan, however, added that no political party will get more than 50 percent of the ballots.   

After the aforementioned political forces, the current parliamentary opposition ARF Dashnaktsutyun and Heritage parties plus the present-day ruling coalition partner Rule of Law Party have a chance to receive parliamentary seats.   

In Gevorg Poghosyan’s words, the voter turnout is usually more during the presidential elections than the parliamentary ones. Also, civic activism has now grown among Armenia’s youth.   

According to Poghosyan, the parliamentary elections will be difficult, with predictable results but with unexpected events.

He added that the majority of the voters believe the elections will not be fair. But at the same time, as per Poghosyan, Armenia’s voters have become more demanding, and nowadays they are more critical toward the authorities.  

In conclusion, Gevorg Poghosyan noted that the results of the upcoming parliamentary elections will become a basis for predicting the presidential elections.