ARF: The opposition has not and will not abandon street protests

ArmInfo.  The opposition has not abandoned, and will not abandon, street protests, as stated  by Ishkhan Saghatelyan, an MP representing the opposition "Armenia"  faction and a representative of the Supreme Body of the ARF  Dashnaktsutyun party, to journalists on July 7. He was commenting on  the bloc's intentions to take mandates and enter the new parliament.

According to the ARF representative,  four days ago the opposition  forces issued a joint statement outlining their cooperation on  critical issues  concerning Armenian society. As Saghatelyan noted,  this means that the cooperation agenda must be expanded and a  "roadmap" must be adopted to address major issues.  "Consequently, we  can expect both rallies and active parliamentary discussions. The  only question is which forces and in what format these actions will  be carried out," Ishkhan Saghatelyan said, adding that the  effectiveness of these steps will be judged based on the future  activities of the opposition forces.

The opposition figure noted that otherwise, the 500,000 voters who  cast their ballots for the opposition may wonder why the bloc's  representatives are failing to fulfill their campaign promises. This,  he noted, brings up the question of responsibility to the electorate,  despite all the existing dangers, which are quite serious.

It should be noted that, according to the election results, the  ruling "Civil Contract" party will receive 64 mandates in the new  parliament, the "Strong Armenia" opposition bloc will hold 29  mandates, and the "Armenia" bloc will hold 12 mandates.