They Don’t Want to Go to Elections Because They Know the Best Case Scenario Will Be the Same Picture: Alen Simonyan

The 'My Step' faction has proposed to hold snap elections, but the opposition has not responded. This was stated by the Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly of Armenia, Alen Simonyan, during a briefing with reporters on February 8, as reported by Armenpress. He referred to a statement issued the day before by the 'My Step' faction, which indicated that there is no demand for snap elections among the broader segments of society.

“We made the proposal, and the opposition has not responded. The opposition talks about contradictory things, contradicts itself. Numerous meetings with citizens of Armenia show the same thing: people say, 'We elected you, go work and make things happen, then it will be clear,'” noted Alen Simonyan.

He recalled their proposed roadmap, which will be summarized in June to determine future actions. “After the war, the government made a proposal; we said several times from the podium, 'Let’s decide that no candidate will be nominated, let’s go for new elections and determine the deadlines.' We invited people for discussions. Didn’t they continue their street struggle? Did they stop? No. The government said, ‘Let’s go to elections.’ They don’t want to go to elections because they know that in the best case, it will be the same picture, and in the worst case, I do not rule out that at least one of those parties may not appear in the parliament after the next parliamentary elections. Should we go door to door, persuade opposition figures, and ask them to agree to elections?” said Alen Simonyan.

He emphasized that during this period, interactions with the public have shown that the citizens of Armenia do not want to hold snap elections. “People want something else; they say, 'Remove the velvet.' We are doing everything to ensure that there is no velvet related to the law. I repeat once again: the law will be enforced rigorously. We brought the issue of snap elections onto the agenda because the opposition raised questions related to the Prime Minister. Being accountable to the people of Armenia, we saw that the proposal and the question did not receive support among the people,” stated the Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly.

The Deputy Speaker declined to comment on statements regarding the party's abandonment of the idea of holding snap elections following the announcement by Armenia’s second President Robert Kocharian about returning to active politics. Referring to the proposal of the leader of the 'Enlightened Armenia' party, Edmon Marukyan, to create a commission outside the parliament to discuss issues related to the war, Simonyan noted, “At this stage, we cannot afford that in the coming months, as we have unresolved issues regarding prisoners of war and a process that is not yet complete. I am concerned that this could be a reason for further exploitation and negatively impact the negotiation process.”