The two dozen or so political parties and organizations currently forming Armenia’s main opposition alliance have decided to stay together also in contesting the upcoming parliamentary elections.

According to Levon Zurabyan, the coordinator of the central office of the Armenian National Congress (ANC), the 18 members of the alliance, despite the difference of approaches that they have on certain political issues, have reached consensus around this issue, putting the need for establishing democracy before their own interests as parties.

“The ANC was formed for the restoration of constitutional order. After futile efforts to achieve that goal through dialogue, the ANC declared [president] Serzh Sargsyan’s immediate resignation to be the focal point of its campaign, and in the future the alliance will continue the mobilization of people around this issue, using the upcoming parliamentary elections for this purpose,” the ANC said in a statement.

Zurabyan also said that talks within the alliance around the possible list of candidates for the May elections were in progress and their results would be announced later on. The ANC would also consider fielding candidates in single-seat constituencies – an electoral system that it opposes along with other opposition forces.

“An alliance of 18 parties is unprecedented [for Armenia]. It is difficult to reach agreement on a list immediately. We’ve done the main thing by deciding to form an election bloc prior to discussing the list. This means that the member parties place their principles above political bargaining,” said Zurabyan.

“The authorities had serious expectations that we would fail to come to agreement. But we will disappoint them,” he added.

At the same time, Zurabyan considers it only natural that the ANC slate be topped by former president Levon Ter-Petrosyan, who has led the alliance since its establishment in the wake of the 2008 presidential election.

Speaking on the recent alleged frictions between the ruling Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) and its junior coalition partner, Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP), Zurabyan said that the aggravation of differences between the two establishment forces would only create more grounds for holding free and transparent elections.

“The RPA wants to rig the vote and do it as smoothly as possible. If one of its coalition partners does not want to obey, it creates the most serious preconditions for reducing the scope of fraud,” the opposition member claimed, stressing that the ANC was ready to cooperate with all forces, including the PAP, to curb electoral fraud.

With the May parliamentary elections fast approaching, the ANC representative admitted that the opposition’s longstanding demand for snap legislative polls had effectively become a moot point. At the same time, he insisted that the demand for an early presidential election remained high on the ANC’s agenda.

“The regular parliamentary elections will become a kind of springboard for the ANC in this matter,” Zurabyan underscored.

At the same time, the senior ANC member disagreed with the opinion of critics and some observers that the joint opposition push for scrapping the current mixed electoral system and switching to an all-proportional election model, which is being opposed by the largest ruling force, is doomed to failure just because the opposition does not have enough votes in parliament.

“If the necessary consolidation of the society and political forces is achieved around this issue, I would consider it quite realistic that an amendment to this effect could be passed in parliament,” Zurabyan concluded.