By proposing a plan for a constitutional referendum, Nikol Pashinyan is pursuing a personal ambition to expand his power, citing the ″people’s interests″ as a justification to realize his idea, says Andranik Tevanyan, the director of the Yerevan-based think-tank Politeconomy.
″Nikol is simply forced to head to a referendum. He knows perfectly well that his decision contains risks, but he has no other way out.
“To manage the risk, he will opt for the long pursued ‘kind’ tradition of electoral frauds (strikingly enough, Pashinyan all the time speaks of the previous practice of electoral frauds not rejecting the services of Tigran Mukuchyan’s Central Electoral Commission).
“Hence consensus must be formed also by way of disallowing electoral frauds. A referendum must turn into a proces of crushing the plan for creating a despotic regime and impeaching Nikol Pashinyan,″ reads his status.