Armenian opposition party leader resigns

ARMENIAN OPPOSITION PARTY LEADER RESIGNS

Arminfo, Yerevan
23 Aug 07

Yerevan, 23 August: National Revival party leader Albert Bazeyan
has resigned.

Bazeyan told Arminfo that he tendered his resignation back in June
"due to tactical reasons and the disagreement with the policies
carried out by some members of the party’s governing council". But his
resignation application has not been answered thus far and the issue
of the party’s leader is still open. Bazeyan said that the National
Revival party’s congress scheduled for September 2007 will settle this
and other issues. When asked whether he will stay in politics after
his resignation is accepted, Bazeyan answered that "time will show".

Bazeyan was the deputy speaker of the Armenian parliament in 1998-99
and served as Yerevan mayor in 1999-2000. In 2003-07, Bazeyan was a
member of parliament from the [opposition] Justice bloc. In the 2007
parliamentary election, he ran for parliament under the proportional
representation system from Stepan Demirchyan’s People’s Party of
Armenia, but was not elected since the party lost the election after
it received less than 5 per cent of votes.