Opposition refuses nominating its candidate for Armenian president

The parliamentary oppositional factions "Armenia" and "I have the honour" have decided not to nominate their candidates for the upcoming presidential election.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on January 23, Armen Sarkisyan announced his resignation from the post of the President of Armenia, explaining that he had become a "target of various political groups" and that he had no levers of influence on the country's home and foreign policies. On January 31, he officially resigned.

The above oppositional factions in the National Assembly (Parliament) of Armenia have decided not to run for the presidency. They claimed in the joint statement of February 3 that any indirect participation in the presidential election will legitimize this process.

The president's institute should be independent and consolidate the society, but the ruling power has nominated and intends to elect the president solely for its own political purposes, the statement says.

"The international community is inactive and silently contributes to the retreat from democratic values and to the formation of a system of one-man dictatorship. Given all these circumstances, we treat the participation in the election as inappropriate and erroneous, since the participation of the opposition will give legitimacy to this process," the statement concludes.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on February 5, 2022 at 02:49 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.