In the first post-election press conference with Armenia’s broadcast media representatives on Monday, President Serzh Sargsyan said he will not meet Raffi Hovhannisyan any more, as by declaring a hunger strike he put an end to the political struggle.
President Sargsyan said after rejecting Hovhannisyan’s suggestion to call snap parliamentary elections and have a run-off of the presidential voter, he told Hovhannisyan that he had three options.
First: To go to Liberty Square and continue to insist that he has garnered 80 percent of the votes and attempts to create alternative structures to the authorities. In this scenario, Sarkisian said, law enforcement agencies would do what they have been tasked to do.
Second: Raffi Hovhannisyan continues to insist that the elections were not fair and that in reality he has garnered a higher percentage of the votes than officially announced. He then fortifies his ranks and takes part in the Yerevan municipal elections garnering the majority of the votes and becomes Mayor of Yerevan, thus the leader of two-thirds of the Republic.
Third: He ceases being part of the opposition and works within government structures to combat corruption and emigration, as he pledged during his campaign.
“Raffi Hovhannisyan chose the first Western option, Serzh Sargsyan said. The President said the defeat in some cities of the republic was an unpleasant surprise to him, but added that despite everything he remains the President of all citizens.
