Hmayak Hovhannisyan, Chairman of the Political Scientists Union of Armenia, is glad that Chairman of the Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP) Gagik Tsarukyan did him good by forcing him into withdrawing his candidacy.

According to him, he has an opportunity to run for parliament as an independent candidate now.

“I have come to realize now that it was the right step to refuse a seat in Parliament. The Union Board, with all of its unaffiliated members, objected to my decision to run for parliament on the PAP list. They were not at all happy about my running for parliament, even as an unaffiliated candidate,” Hovhannisyan said.

As to the reasons for his giving up the idea, Hovhannisyan said: “Practically speaking, they deceived me. But they respected by status. Do you want me to share Vahe Avetyan’s lot? Do not you know that there is no arguing with oligarchs?”

Hovhannisyan agreed to run for parliament in company with the PAP chairman as the latter supported his intention to run for parliament as an independent candidate. “Competition means development prospects,” he said.

Hovhannisyan was against elections in single-member constituencies, where now he believes the election system must be in force provided unaffiliated candidates run for parliament there.