Fake oppositions have eroded Armenia’s political landscape in the past two decades, acting Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian said at a meeting in Astana with representatives of the Armenian community of Kazakhstan.
According to the Armenian leader, his government will not be taking that way. “For quite a long time Armenia has not had a government and an opposition with a mandate from the people, that’s why in Armenia people did not believe any one,” said Pashinian, who on November 8 attended a summit of Collective Security Treaty Organization member states in Kazakhstan’s capital.
“We are not going to create an artificial opposition, because it is up to the opposition to establish itself as a viable force. In the upcoming parliamentary elections the people will decide who will be the government and who will be the opposition,” he added.
Political analyst Armen Baghdasarian believes that it is only pseudo-governments that need pseudo-oppositions. In Armenia, he thinks, there is no such risk at the moment. Moreover, according to the analyst, the real struggle will be within the opposition field, as the Pashinian-led My Step alliance will be a clear winner.
“The former ruling Republican Party of Armenia (HHK) claims that it will be the only opposition. I think they are not quite honest and right, because the opposition is not those who deliver critical speeches. The opposition is the power that can really be a counterbalance and with which the public dissatisfied with the government will connect its hopes. Now it is obvious that no one in Armenia pins any hopes on the HHK,” Baghdasarian said.
The HHK has not yet made a formal decision regarding its participation in the snap parliamentary elections scheduled for December 9.
The party’s spokesman Eduard Sharmazanov told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service on Thursday that the HHK will hold a meeting on November 11 during which this issue will be discussed.
Political parties and alliances have until November 14 to submit their documents for registration in the elections.
Snap general elections were appointed in Armenia after the country’s popular Prime Minister Pashinian forced the parliament’s dissolution with his tactical resignation and two straight tactical votes in parliament that failed to elect a new prime minister.
Pashinian’s political team, which came to power on the wave of anti-government protests last spring, is tipped to win in the coming polls by a wide margin and form the next government.
The pro-Pashinian My Step alliance polled over 80 percent of the vote in September municipal elections in capital Yerevan, which is home to more than a third of Armenia’s population.