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Ishkhan Saghatelyan, one of the leaders of the opposition Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF Dashnaktsutyun) party and coordinator of the Homeland Salvation Movement, reaffirmed the opposition support for the conduct of snap parliamentary elections in the country.

At a meeting with members of the ARF Youth Union of Armenia on Friday, he dismissed Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s claims that the opposition parties oppose early elections, but reiterated their demand for the elections to be held only after Pashinyan is removed from office.

He states Nikol Pashinyan should not continue to serve as prime minister during the elections because he will not be dealing with any issue other than the preparation for the elections during presumably five-month pre-election period, which, the opposition leader believes, will lead to an increase in the challenges facing the country.

“He will cling to power and will focus all his resources on preparing for the elections,” Saghatelyan noted.

The opposition figure believes the Armenian premier will “rig” the elections simply because he will stand trial if he fails to win reelection.

Also, he deplored the claims that Nikol Pashinyan enjoys high popular support as an “offence” to the people.

“How can a person claim to have high public support after handing over half of our lands, committing so many acts of treason and leading the country to such a situation? In general, populists can deceive the people once. These people manage to deceive their people once, but never twice,” he said.