YEREVAN. – The institution of renunciation of mandates is an institution of a political nature, the Central Electoral Commission (CEC), based on preliminary data, will carry out the distribution of the mandates. CEC Chairman Tigran Mukuchyan told this to reporters Monday, referring to the question of what will happen if the "Armenia" bloc—led by second President Robert Kocharyan—and the "I Have the Honor" bloc—led by opposition Homeland Party leader Artur Vanetsyan—do not accept the National Assembly seats they have won as a result of Sunday’s snap parliamentary elections.

"The mandates are distributed solely between the parties which shall receive those mandates in accordance with the procedure defined by the Electoral Code; those mandates of cannot be transferred to another force instead of them," he said.

Asked what will happen if all the opposition MPs refuse these parliamentary seats, Mukuchyan responded that this means that no one will get a parliamentary mandate.

To the remark that, in that case, there will be no opposition in the parliament, Mukuchyan answered: "The forces that exist will remain in the parliament."

To the question whether this does not automatically lead to new snap parliamentary elections, Mukuchyan said that at this moment it will be difficult for him to give a clear answer. "At this stage, we do not have a specified institution of renouncing the mandates. Of course, there may be an option that let’s assume the candidates who are allocated [parliamentary] mandates refuse to receive their mandates by way of withdrawing. In that case, the [political] parties that have participated in the distribution of mandates, it is natural, only they get their mandates.”