April 2, 2012 - 14:44 AMT
Heritage member says ANC failed cooperation among opposition forces

Proposal of Heritage party on cooperation between opposition forces in majority constituencies and nominating one opposition candidate in each constituency still remains in force, Ruben Hakobyan, Heritage deputy chairman said.

As he told journalists, change of power is impossible without cooperation within the opposition; otherwise the authorities will use the situation to take their candidates into the next parliament.

According to Hakobyan, Heritage leader Raffi Hovannisian intended to withdraw in any case after he learnt that Nikol Pashinyan, representative of the Armenian National Congress (ANC) was also running in the same constituency, and this was not a result of negotiations with ANC.

He also informed that Heritage which nominated 5 candidates in Yerevan, offered to support ANC's 8 nominees in Yerevan, as well as another 12 candidates in provinces; ANC, however, disagreed.

“Eventually, it turned out that ANC is holding talks, but not with opposition forces but the members of the ruling coalition,” Hakobyan said with irony. In his words, representatives of ANC and the Republican Party of Armenia reached an agreement in 12th and 13th constituencies.

Heritage member wondered how ANC is going to provide change of power it is constantly speaking about, if it assists in securing victory for governmental candidates to the parliament.

“Change of power is not an abstract notion; it should be ensured through certain mechanisms, one of them being provision of majority of opposition candidates in majority constituencies. This failed due to ANC’s destructive stance,” he said.

When asked by journalists whether Heritage will further cooperate with ANC, Hakobyan replied: “We saw that there is no cooperation between us, furthermore, we’ve got blows from behind. Still, these are political processes, and this does not mean we will bear grudge saying we are not going to deal with ANC anymore.”