Heritage party confused by collaboration format with free democrats in Armenian parliamentary election

YEREVAN, March 5. /ARKA/. Heritage Armenian Opposition Party has not identified the collaboration format with Free Democrats Party in the upcoming parliamentary elections of Armenia on May 6, said Ruben Hakobyan, Heritage Party deputy leader. 

“Unfortunately, throughout the experience in Armenia, political unions are formed only at the eve of elections, after which they immediately collapse, as have no common points in their ideologies. We want to establish long-lasting and effective cooperation ( with Free Democrats),” Hakobyan said Monday at the press conference.

First of all, Heritage Party wants to build a common ideological platform with Free Democrats aimed for future cooperation, according to him. Hakobyan also said that the format of joint participation of Heritage and Free Democrats parties in the parliamentary elections has not been discussed yet. In his turn, Stepan Safaryan, head of Heritage parliament faction, clarified that cooperation with Free Democrats had never implied a joint participation in the elections. “Today we can’t be sure of anything as the question has not been discussed. 

At present, Heritage will participate in the elections alone. Time will show what is going to happen in the future,” he said.Earlier, Ararat Zurabyan, a member of Free Democrats Party, stated that Heritage and Free Democrats would go to the elections as a united bloc, and that they were likely to declare on this union at the congress of Free Democrats on March 11. And even though electoral list has not been yet discussed, it will be composed on 50/50 proportional principle, he said. 

The head of Heritage faction said he had no clue on why Zurabyan made such statement, as the electoral list had not been discussed yet. He reminded that the Party was expected to spell out details on its participation in the elections at Party’s Council session on March 18.The next parliamentary elections will be held in Armenia in May of 2012. Free Democrats Party was founded by the former members of Pan- Armenian National Movement, headed in the 90s by Levon Ter-Petrosyan, the first president of Armenia.Heritage Party, liberal-democratic political force, was founded in 2002 by former Armenian Foreign Minister Raffi Hovhannisyan . At present, the party has six representatives in Armenian parliament.  -0-