Heritage Party will Have More Seats in Next Parliament, Believes Party Leader

We are gradually realizing that all serious political players (in Armenia) consider themselves to be in the usual pre-election period and no matter what they say or don’t say in press conferences, public speeches or from the podium, they are already preparing particularly for the next elections, Heritage Party leader Raffi Hovannisian told reporters in Yerevan today.

“Preparation for these elections already exists in closed meetings. But if the issue is that getting into the National Assembly, so that we make our 7 [seats] into 15 or we make extra-parliamentary status to parliamentary, and expect that with this, Armenia will change, I think these are unfounded expectations. And this issue has to be solved through the most impossible resolutions and joint federal work,” he said.

The opposition party leader expressed confidence that his party will acquire more seats in the next parliament, but didn’t elaborate the reasons for his conviction. Note, the Heritage Party currently holds 7 seats.

On the topic of the likelihood of his candidacy in the 2013 presidential elections: “There are hundreds of men and women who can be presidential candidates. Finally, we have to have a legal country this side of 1995, and to make this a reality, to bring this closer, I am prepared to make my candidacy more likely and more unlikely,” he said, rather cryptically.