Armenian parliamentary opposition not to nominate presidential candidate

Armenia's parliamentary opposition has decided not to nominate a candidate for president, Report informs, citing news.am.

According to Hraparak newspaper, as a result of the long discussions that began after Armen Sarkissian's resignation [from the Office of the President], the opposition wing 'which is always in favor of doing nothing so that they are, as if, not accused of legitimizing the agendas put forward by the authorities' has won.

And even the argument that it [i.e., nominating a presidential candidate from the opposition] will be an opportunity to use the [parliamentary] rostrum and show the insolvency of the pro-government candidate did not play a role.

The two parliamentary opposition factions will make a joint statement today.

Armenian President Armen Sarkissian announced his resignation on January 23. As the main reason, he pointed out the lack of powers allowing him to influence the processes in foreign and domestic policy. From February 1, the duties of the country's president have been performed by Speaker of Parliament Alen Simonyan.