“As a result of a comprehensive analysis, a decision on the Republican Party’s direct nonparticipation in those elections was made,” the HHK said in a statement released after a meeting of its governing body.
The short statement added that the opposition party will explain the decision and announce its further steps during a congress scheduled for this Sunday.
The HHK ran in the last elections 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.
None of the other major opposition groups appears to have been willing to team up with Sarkisian’s party this time around. Those include the Hayastan alliance of former President Robert Kocharian and the Mer Dzevov movement set up last year by billionaire Samvel Karapetian.
Analysts believe that the HHK would struggle to gain seats in the next Armenian parliament if it were to run on its own. Sarkisian, who ruled Armenia from 2008-2018, said two months ago that he would love to join a single, broad-based opposition alliance challenging Pashinian’s Civil Contract party.
Vanetsian’s Fartherland party also decided later in February not to enter the unfolding parliamentary race. It urged supporters to vote for other opposition groups.
