Opposition member on local government elections: The Armenia bloc has enough willpower to resist pressure from the Armenian authorities

ArmInfo. The Armenia bloc has sufficient willpower to resist the pressure exerted on the opposition by the Armenian authorities ahead of the Local Government (LG) elections. Kristine Vardanyan, a member of the Armenian parliament from the opposition Armenia faction, stated this at a press conference in Yerevan on September 23.

According to Vardanyan, the opposition today essentially faces a choice: use various tools to continue the struggle and strengthen its position in order to eventually bring about change in the country, or adhere to the "all or nothing" principle. That is, as Vardanyan explained, to declare that if the government doesn't change tomorrow, then everything else is pointless, including presenting its candidates in the LG elections. "We're not choosing the second option, but we recognize that this is a complex problem that can't be solved with a single action. Instead, we need to strengthen existing positions and advance them," the deputy explained.

At the same time, she called the upcoming local government elections unprecedented in terms of trampling on citizens' rights to free choice. "The ruling Civil Contract faction, as proof that they are pursuing a policy of democratizing the country, calls for an examination of how many opposition heads of government were elected in the previous local government elections. But in this case, I want to ask: how many of them weren't persecuted? Now they are doing everything they can to ensure such a result never happens again. We promised our citizens to fight to one day achieve the desired result. And one of the venues for this struggle is the local government elections. We have the willpower to resist the pressure. I am confident that this will also help us achieve our ultimate goal. "We cannot endlessly complain about dictatorial methods and not try to resist it," the opposition figure noted.

Member of the Armenian Parliament from the opposition "Armenia" faction, Sevak Khachatryan, also noted that participation in the local self-government elections is very important. Because, according to him, all these processes today have a political subtext. "Therefore, all opposition forces that have like-minded allies should participate in the local self-government elections. The elections in Gyumri and Parakar showed us that opposition forces can remain in power. Of course, everyone remembers what happened next. Now, unlike those elections, the authorities have decided to put pressure on the opposition forces even before the elections in order to neutralize them. Therefore, I will say that we will stand with all forces that participate in the local self-government elections. "I believe that participation in these elections is very important," Khachatryan concluded.

As a reminder, local government elections will be held in 46 communities in Armenia in the fall of 2026.