NDP WILL NOT NOMINATE ITS CANDIDATE

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[06:33 pm] 27 June, 2007

The National Democrats Party will not nominate a candidate for the
presidential elections. Neither will the party support Vazgen Manukyan,
the leader of the National Democratic Union, in case the opposition
nominates a few candidates, NDP leader Shavarsh Kocharyan, said at
the Pastark Club June 27.

According to him, the new Constitution of Armenia has turned
the country into a typical semi-presidential state. It means the
parliamentary election solved the problem of government: power
belongs to the parliament majority and the prime minister leads the
real government. In this context, the prospect that the president,
the prime minister and the speaker are from the same party is not so
important, Shavarsh Kocharyan says.

Shavarsh Kocharyan didn’t give assessments on the opposition. In
other words, Shavarsh Kocharyan says Armenia needs an opposition which
understands the logic of the new rules of the game. If the opposition
does not change and become united setting forward a common candidate,
it will inevitably lose the presidential election, Shavarsh Kocharyan
thinks.

Generally Shavarsh Kocharyan doen’t consider the Orinats Yerkir
Party opposition.

"They are opposition as they were left out of the power," he said.