July 24, 2017 - 15:25 AMT
ANC: Ruling Republicans readying Armenia for Sargsyan’s premiership

Deputy chairman of the Armenian National Congress (ANC) Levon Zurabyan said that president Serzh Sargsyan is the most active representative of the ruling Republican party (RPA), while prime minister Karen Karapetyan has gone by the wayside.

According to Zurabyan, the RPA is thus preparing Sargsyan for premiership.

In response to a question about whether Sargsyan would like to become a PM or would rather remain the chairman of the ruling party, Zurabyan said such a scenario is easy to predict.

All the steps that the ruling party has taken are interconnected, the former opposition lawmaker said, citing the constitutional reforms, which he said enabled Sargsyan’s regime to reproduce.

“Afterwards, they falsified the parliamentary elections and created the staff they wanted,” Zurabyan said during an iterview on Armenia TV.

The Armenian opposition has been insisting on some clarity about the position of the prime minister after Sargsyan’s term as president ends in 2018. Various RPA officials used to say that Karapetyan will continue heading the cabinet, but opinions come to vary lately.