YEREVAN. – Armenia’s opposition Heritage Party Chairman Raffi Hovannisian submitted a petition, to capital Yerevan’s Electoral District No. 7 Election Commission, with a request not to register him as a majority-election-system MP candidate for the upcoming National Assembly elections, the aforesaid Commission’s Chairman Gegham Sargsyan told Armenian News-NEWS.am.  

“He will no longer be a candidate,” Sargsyan said, and added that Hovannisian’s petition will be read when the candidates are registered, and this petition will be accepted as basis for not registering him as a nominee.

Raffi Hovannisian, and Haykakan Zhamanak daily’s chief editor, and opposition bloc Armenian National Congress (ANC) member, Nikol Pashinyan had nominated their candidacies at the aforementioned electoral district on March 22. Subsequently, Pashinyan had released a statement, noting that he was surprised by Raffi Hovannisian’s nomination at the same district.        

In his turn, Hovannisian noted he was uninformed of Pashinyan’s nomination in the same electoral district; otherwise he would not have nominated there. He had also proposed to have only one opposition candidate in each electoral district, but ANC had turned down this proposal.