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This situation was unexpected both for Raffi Hovannisian and Serzh Sargsyan, political analyst Gegham Nazaryan told a news conference, when commenting on the post-election developments in Armenia. 

“With his unexpected decision to go on hunger strike Raffi Hovannisian moved the development to a different field. I think a candidate who received more than half a million votes should not have gone for this move. It is people who have weak resources who resort to hunger strike as their last hope,” Nazaryan said.

According to him, it will be very difficult to Raffi Hovannisian to get out of this deadlock as it is little probable that Serzh Sargsyan will resign before or after April 9.

“Raffi Hovannisian’s supporters should urge him to end the hunger strike as soon as possible,” said the expert.

“What takes place today is not serious, especially as Raffi Hovannisian yielded to some pressures and calls and began to play government at Liberty Square,” Nazaryan concluded.

The Central Electoral Commission of Armenia on February 25 announced the final results of the presidential elections in Armenia. According to them, Serzh Sargsyan won the elections with 58.64% of the votes, while his closest rival, Raffi Hovannisian, received 36.75% of the votes. Hovannisian disagrees with the election results and is holding mass protest actions. On March 4, representatives of Raffi Hovannisian and former candidate Andrias Ghukasyan handed an appeal to the Constitutional Court disputing the results of the February 18 presidential elections in Armenia.

Raffi Hovannisian began hunger strike at Liberty Square on March 10 evening.