President Serzh Sarkisian’s Republican Party (HHK) and the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun) are poised to extend their power-sharing agreement reached a year ago, a senior HHK representative said late on Thursday.
The two parties began negotiations on a new coalition deal shortly after the April 2 parliamentary elections won by the HHK. The latter expressed readiness to cut such a deal despite gaining the majority of seats in the new National Assembly.
“Discussions with our Dashnaktsutyun partners are continuing and it is very likely that a 2017 HHK-Dashnaktsutyun political agreement will be signed and we will have two governing parties in the parliament,” said Eduard Sharmazanov, the HHK spokesman.
“These are the results of our preliminary discussions,” he told reporters after a weekly meeting of his party’s governing body headed by President Serzh Sarkisian.
Dashnaktsutyun is represented in the current Armenian government by three ministers in line with an agreement with the HHK signed in February 2016. The party, which is particularly influential in the worldwide Armenian Diaspora, will have seven seats in Armenia’s 105-member parliament.
Sharmazanov’s remarks suggest that the HHK is unlikely to reach a coalition deal with businessman Gagik Tsarukian’s alliance, which finished second in the elections and won 31 parliament seats. Senior members of the bloc have been reluctant to make public statements since the vote.
Facebook Forum