Heritage: It`s time for Armenia`s opposition to present people with  legitimate alternative to power

ArmInfo. It's time for Armenia's opposition to offer the Armenian people a popular, comprehensive, and legitimate alternative to power, with a broad political and non- partisan, collective new leadership. Heritage Party leader Raffi Hovhannisyan wrote this on his Facebook page, reacting to the Central  Electoral Commission (CEC) of Armenia's announcement of the final  results of the parliamentary elections held in the country on June 7. 

According to the politician, judging by Armenian history and the  official parliamentary election results announced by the Central  Election Commission on June 14, both in their content and depth, the  procedure proposes bringing to power the most illegitimate "prince  and his court" in Armenian history. "We have always faced a lack of  legitimacy, especially in the modern period since 1995. Regardless of  whether they had the courage to take responsibility, successive  authorities have branded our country and people with the label of  'illegal and illegitimate elections,' willingly or unwillingly  creating the ground for further upheaval and loss. However, whether  old or new, kingdom or republic, no one has ever won 'illegitimate'  power with such filthy hypocrisy as the once-opposition 'democrats,'  who turned into a shameful junta," the Heritage Party leader noted.

According to Hovhannisyan, the Armenian people find themselves in a  difficult situation, as their identity has been lost. However,  despite this, the politician noted, there is still an opportunity to  salvage a sliver of hope in this "formless chaos" and unite as a  nation. "Regardless of whether the opposition forces that have  entered parliament decide to accept mandates or reject them, the time  has come, albeit belatedly, to propose a popular, comprehensive, and  legitimate alternative to the government, with a broad political,  non- partisan, collective new leadership. Narrow, complacent,  fragmented, and idol-like solutions are fruitless and dead. We have  been given grace and a path by God and the citizens of Armenia. We  must straighten our backs, correct all strategic, ideological,  organizational, and propaganda mistakes, and once and for all escape  this maelstrom of irreversible historical and current sins. We will  not hesitate for another five years," the Heritage Party leader  concluded.

It should be noted that on June 14, Central Election Commission  Chairman Vahagn Hovakimyan presented the final results of the  parliamentary elections. According to him, voter turnout was 58.9%,  or 1,476,769 citizens. The Civil Contract Party won seats in the  Armenian parliament with 49.7456% of the vote, Samvel Karapetyan's  Strong Armenia bloc with 23.2710%, and second president Robert  Kocharyan's Armenia bloc with 9.9231%. Gagik Tsarukyan's Prosperous  Armenia Party failed to pass the 4% parliamentary threshold following  a recount, receiving only 3.9893%.

Tsarukyan's party failed to pass the threshold after the Central  Election Commission annulled the results of three polling stations  where Tsarukyan's party received more than 200 votes. During the  meeting, Hovakimyan assured that the annulment of the voting results  at these polling stations had no impact on the election results and  refused to organize a rerun of the polling stations. According to  Hovakimyan, the seats were distributed as follows: Pashinyan's party  won 64 seats, securing a constitutional majority of three- fifths in  parliament. Karpetyan's bloc won 29 seats, and Kocharyan's bloc won  12 seats.