FORMER ARMENIAN RULING PARTY WITHDRAWS FROM ELECTION RACE
Arminfo
30 Apr 07
Yerevan, 30 April: The former ruling party Armenian Pan-National
Movement [APNM] has withdrawn from the election race ahead of time,
the press secretary of the Armenian Central Electoral Commission
[CEC], Tsovinar Khachaturyan, has said. She said that the APNM’s
relevant request was honoured at the CEC special session the day
before yesterday [28 April].
"This step was taken to consolidate the opposition – 25 players in
the election are too much and we invite some political forces of
the country to follow suit," Aram Manukyan, member of the party’s
political council, told Arminfo.
The former ruling party will make public the details of its decision
at a news conference today. The APNM yesterday distributed a statement
which said that the withdrawal of the party from the election race
was designed to "consolidate both the opposition forces and voters
of the opposition".
[Passage omitted: the APNM was set up in 1988]
So the number of the parties standing in the 12 May parliamentary
election dropped to 24, i.e. 23 political parties and one election
bloc Impeachment.