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“In Armenia, elections themselves are more important than their results. There is a real disagreement between the Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP) and Republican Party of Armenia (RPA), which could result in a challenge when they nominate their candidates,” Richard Giragosian, director of the Yerevan-based Regional Studies Center (RSC), told reporters in Yerevan, while commenting on the upcoming presidential elections in Armenia.

“In reality, I see no political campaign. I see a political hobby rather than a serious election campaign,” said the expert and added: “We have strong influence of oligarchs, and no more is needed.”

“These elections will be different from the previous ones when we had pseudo-candidates such as Artashes Geghamyan. But now we see a real competition and real challenges,” Mr Giragosyan noted.

Referring to the relationship between Armenian National Congress (HAK) and PAP, the speaker said: “What we see in the dance of HAK and PAP is not tango, because tango is a dance of two, while here we see that one of the dancers is reluctant to dance.”

HAK and PAP are little probable to form an alliance, Giragosian thinks, because very strong individuals are involved in both of them.