Pashinyan says political crisis in Armenia over
YEREVAN, June 22. /ARКА/. Addressing thousands of his supporters who gathered Monday evening in a central Yerevan square to celebrate the victory of his Civil Contract party in Sunday early parliamentary elections, prime minister Nikol Pashinyan announced the end of the political crisis in Armenia.
"I hope that we will actually fix today that the political crisis that began in Armenia on November 9 has been overcome, and we will return to full-fledged work from tomorrow," he said.
Addressing other political forces, Pashinyan proposed that all end the language of insults and hate. He made another proposal, addressing the “well-known participants in political and public life" (apparently meaning the ex-presidents) saying they must return what they had stolen from the people.
'From tomorrow morning I begin political consultations with those forces that took part in the parliamentary elections and are inclined to dialogue and discussion," he said.
Pashinyan made the same call for dialogue also to all those structures with which disputes and contradictions arose during this period. He also called on the spiritual leaders of the country for dialogue.
"We must also" repair " the spiritual life of our country, because to fulfill our dreams we lacked one thing - faith the size of a mustard seed, and we must create this faith. And when we have this faith, we will move mountains together and will have a free and happy country, "he said.
According to the official results announced by the Central Election Commission (CEC) on Monday morning, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s Civil Contract party won almost 54 percent of the vote and will retain a two-thirds majority in the Armenian parliament.
Ex-president Robert Kocharyan’s Armenia bloc came in a distant second with 21 percent, followed by the opposition Pativ Unem alliance led by another ex-president, Serzh Sargsyan which got 5.2 percent.
Although Pativ Unem failed to clear the 7 percent threshold it will have parliament seats because Armenian law stipulates that at least three political forces must be represented in the National Assembly.
KocharYan’s bloc said on Monday that it will ask Armenia’s Constitutional Court to overturn the official results of Sunday’s parliamentary elections. It claimed that the results are “extremely dubious.” “We have serious grounds to consider these elections illegitimate,” it said in a statement. -0-
