The main intrigue at May parliamentary elections is likely to be whether the two coalition parties, the Republicans led by President Serzh Sargsyan and Prosperous Armenia that does not deny its loyalty to ex-president Robert Kocharyan, will be able to coordinate their actions and act without causing damage to each other.

On January 30, the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA), the Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP) and the other junior coalition partner, Orinats Yerkir, met on the level of their leaders.

After the meeting, Orinats Yerkir leader Artur Baghdasaryan told media that all the three parties would contest the elections separately, which means that the current coalition would formally dissolve at the elections.

Only three months are left before the vote, but none of the political parties or blocs has yet decided on its list of candidates. It is remarkable that the Republican Party has postponed its convention until March 17, in fact, deciding not to publicize its election slate until the last minute. Some media in Armenia already rushed to comment that it was done on purpose to try and see how the presidential vote in Russia slated for March 4 goes.

However, the party is already now working on the list, and as it is being stated today it will include a lot of young people.

The opposition Armenian National Congress is still going through this process with difficulty. Stepan Minasyan, a member of the People’s Party of Armenia (PPA), one of the key ANC parties, told the Haykakan Zhamanak daily that there is only the decision that former president Levon Ter-Petrosyan will head the list, with PPA leader Stepan Demirchyan second among candidates. It is yet unclear how the remaining positions will be distributed, as the ANC is an alliance of 18 political parties each of which appears to have ambitions to be represented high on the list.

Experts already predict some serious fallout within the ANC because of the lack of a mechanism of forming the lists. ANC coordinator Levon Zurabyan said that the drafting of the proportional list was a rather difficult job. It was stated that the list would be drawn up in accordance with the contribution that each member of the ANC had made in the formation and development of the alliance. But it will be difficult to measure this contribution.

Nothing is yet known about the lists of other parties that potentially will compete in the elections. Recently hints were dropped that ex-minister of foreign affairs Vartan Oskanian may be included in the PAP list. His statement on January 30 only reaffirmed those hints, but there is still no clarity as whether tycoon Gagik Tsarukyan, the leader of the party, will lead the proportional ticket.

Despite the fact that the leader of the ruling Republican Party, President Serzh Sargsyan had earlier stated that the forthcoming elections would be free and fair, the goal is hardly becoming the prime focus of the election campaign, while the main “trend” is how the parliament seats will be divided among the supporters of the three Armenian “presidents”.

In fact, the informal opening of the election campaign season did not advance any new proposals for social and economic policies, foreign policy, democratic reforms, dismantling the oligarchy-based system, etc. The whole campaign is rather centered around individuals.