Armenia’s RPA rules out clashes over parliamentary withdrawals

PanARMENIAN.Net - Spokesman for the ruling Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) Eduard Sharmazanov on Thursday, May 4 ruled out clashes inside the party over several MP-elects’ withdrawals, Aysor.am reports.

“No such thing is possible inside the Republican party,” Sharmazanov said, adding that decisions are jointly implemented in RPA.

“We have party discipline. Whatever happened to Tsarukyan bloc can never occur inside out party. All the nine lawmakers who gave up their mandates, have done so by the whole party’s decision. We work as a team.”

The Central Electoral Commission said on Tuesday that 35 newly-elected lawmakers - nine from RPA, three from the Armenian Revolutionary Federation Dashnaktsutyun (ARFD), and 23 from Tsarukyan bloc - have given up their mandates.

Some of the Tsarukyan bloc members later applied to the CEC with a request to annul the withdrawal application, eight of them ultimately winning back parliamentary seats.