Deputy chairman of the Republican Party of Armenia, former education minister Armen Ashotyan on Wednesday, April 5 urged YELQ bloc against giving up parliamentary mandates.

Some candidates who didn’t manage to collect enough votes to enter the parliament, as well as a number of activists earlier called on YELQ members to give up their mandates.

According to Ashotyan, the move would leave the 120,000 citizens who voted for the bloc without any representation in the parliament.

Also, Ashotyan said “eliminating the Western discourse from the parliament and shutting the National Assembly doors to the only liberal force is far from politics.”

Based on results calculated in all the 2009 polling stations, the Republican party leads with 49.12% of votes (771 247 ballots), followed by the Tsarukyan bloc with 27.32% (428 965), YELQ with 7.77% (122 049) and the ARF Dashnaktsutyun with 6.57% (103 173). Voter turnout stood at 60.86% on Sunday, April 2.