Epress.am News from Armenia
Heritage Party MP Armen Martirosyan yesterday dedicated his parliamentary announcement to the Electoral Code. Recall, members of the Heritage Party parliamentary faction yesterday made their announcements not in parliament but at Liberty Square, where party leader Raffi Hovannisian has been on hunger strike since Mar. 15. Martirosyan raised the Electoral Code issue because the issue is currently being discussed in parliament.
“Already in the initial stage, all the requirements, which are represented in such an important code, have been violated. That includes public opinion and making the opposition a participant in this process, which is not only the requirement of different Council of Europe resolutions, but also the only mechanism for ensuring legitimacy of the new Electoral Code. Regretfully, it must be noted that the authorities have again adopted their former habit of being reelected through fraud and have moved to implementing steps aimed at putting it into effect,” he said.
The MP noted that the public, along with the real opposition, must fight together for the authorities’ resignation and snap elections.
“This is the belief of the Heritage [Party] and Raffi Hovannisian. This has to be every citizen’s demand,” added Martirosyan.
Heritage Party parliamentary faction leader Stepan (Styopa) Safaryan, in his speech, noted that upon president Serzh Sargsyan’s initiative, the Feb. 17, 2011 Declaration of the Political Coalition signed by the leaders of the ruling Republican Party of Armenia, Prosperous Armenia and Rule of Law (Orinats Yerkir) effectively announced the results of the 2012 parliamentary and the 2013 presidential elections.
“We must all freely realize that in falsifying elections, the specialized Central Electoral Commission will not publish other results than what is written in the coalition memorandum. Apart from the fact that such a declaration means the continuation of at least 7 years of current domestic and foreign policy, it also marks that the Feb. 17 elections as such are shot, there won’t be competition, we won’t have an alternative and if we don’t collectively fight this today, then that which will be left for us is to settle with the results of the 2012 parliamentary and the 2013 presidential elections and leave the homeland, or we have to decide not to settle and resist,” he said.