“No, we don’t have a decision. If we do, we’ll say it,” Sarkisian told reporters when asked about the HHK’s participation in the elections slated for June.
The HHK ran in the last vote held in 2021 in an alliance with another opposition party led by Artur Vanetsian, a former head of Armenia’s National Security Service. The Pativ Unem alliance finished a distant third with 5.2 percent of the vote. Vanetsian announced its effective breakup a year later, following the Armenian opposition’s failure to topple Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian through street protests.
Analysts believe that the HHK would struggle to gain seats in the next parliament if it runs on its own. None of the other major opposition groups now seems willing to team up with Sarkisian’s party. Those include the Hayastan alliance of former President Robert Kocharian and the Mer Dzevov movement set up last year by billionaire Samvel Karapetian.
Sarkisian said he would love to join a single, broad-based opposition alliance challenging Pashinian’s Civil Contract party.
“But events show that uniting the opposition is a difficult task, and we are not talking about participating [in the elections] with one list. But we’ll see,” added the 71-year-old ex-president who ruled Armenia from 2008-2018.
