Oppositionist: Armenian National Congress is trying to split coalition

The opposition Armenian National Congress (ANC) will try to split the coalition and to attract certain deputies from the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) to their side, secretary of the parliamentary faction of Armenian National Congress, Aram Manukyan, said at today's press-conference.

"Political bargaining has been taking place in the parliament, over which all the forces have been trying to steal votes from each other. During the voting on the government's programme, we saw that there is a rather big number of the oppositionally tuned people in the parliament, and in case of attraction of several coalition deputies, the ruling RPA will weaken. Today 55-56 votes in the parliament have been supporting the opposition. If we have 56, it is not ruled out to have 66 either. This is the needed number of votes with a help of which something may be resolved in the parliament", - he said. At the same time, Manukyan did not rule out the opposite process either, saying that the authorities will take similar steps for attraction of deputies through bribe and blackmail.

He said that at present the opposition rhetoric of the Prosperous Armenia Party is beneficial for the ANC, as it is directed against the RPA and will promote development of the country. He also added that PAP refused ministerial portfolios and the positions of the leaders of parliamentary commissions, and until it has been functioning in this direction, interests of both forces coincide. He said that ANC is ready to cooperate with all the oppositionally tuned factions.