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Prosperous Armenia Party leader Gagik Tsarukyan’s refusal to run for president and back any candidate will lead to a decrease in the party’s approval rating, head of YSU political science chair, Professor Garik Keryan told reporters in Yerevan.

“Unlike parliamentary elections, presidential elections imply fight connected with candidates approval rating. From this point of view, it is natural that candidates calculate their benefits from their participation in the elections or their refusal to participate in the elections as well as what they will lose in each of these cases,” Keryan said.

According to him, in all probability, Gagik Tsarukyan also made such calculations and then made this decision, which cannot but affect his approval rating.

“As a result of this decision, a serious electorate remained in a vacuum. Parties that were in a hopeless situation received a possibility to win over this electorate. Armenian political arena lacks political parties that have a serious ideology and come up with their political course. Instead, there are extremely charismatic political parties whose activities, popularity and even economic and administrative resource are connected with political activities of individuals. Armenian parties are mainly based on charisma of one individual,” Keryan concluded.