Armenia’s Ruling Coalition to Back Single Presidential Candidate

Today, at the Armenian Presidential Palace, the parties to the Political Coalition – the Republican Party of Armenia (HHK), Prosperous Armenia (BHK) and Rule of Law (Orinats Yerkir, or OEK) signed the Declaration of the Political Coalition.

On behalf of HHK, the declaration was signed by RA President, the Chair of the Party Serzh Sargsyan; on behalf of BHK, by the Chair of the Party Gagik Tsarukyan; and on behalf of OEK, by the Chair of the Party Arthur Baghdassarian.

The declaration reads as follows:

“Three years ago the HHK, BHK and OEK political parties formed a political coalition which assumed responsibilities for Armenia’s political, economic and social development.

“The Political Coalition was formed when the country was going through difficult times. The formation of the Coalition, expression of will and resolve by its members and collective acceptance of responsibilities for the actions of the authorities has played a significant role in ensuring stability and normal life in the country. It has also become an important factor in successfully defying the external and internal challenges facing the Republic of Armenia, including the events in South Ossetia and preclusion of a serious social downturn conditioned by the severe global financial and economic crisis.

“The Political Coalition restates that it is important to withstand jointly all potential external threats, carry on with the structural changes in the country, provide them with new momentum and guarantee tangible results.

“The Political Coalition declares its resolve to make more courageous steps toward ensuring Armenia’s post-crisis progressive development and improvement of well-being of our people, placing special emphasis on the comprehensive fight against corruption and the significant reduction of the shadow economy.

“The Political Coalition underscores the importance of unity in this process and reiterates its political responsibility for these changes.

“The parties of the Coalition are united in meeting these changes, and in the upcoming parliamentary elections, [they] will not strive to increase their political weight through contesting against each other or changing correlation of forces within the Coalition. The Coalition partners are confident that sustained implementation of the reforms will further increase the political role of the Coalition and public trust toward it, resulting in the amplified participation of the Coalition at the RA National Assembly after the parliamentary elections. Furthermore, at the presidential elections, the Political Coalition will come up with one single nomination in the person of the current President, thus creating guarantees of further continuance of the changes and sustainable development of our country for the next five years.”