Members of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation-Dashnaksutyun (ARF-D) in Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) have promised to announce their candidate running in the country’s upcoming presidential election in autumn.
The party may even come up with a decision to endorse a non-partisan nominee, yet the paper says “the old friends to not seem to be in a hurry” about their plans. So far, only four candidates have been – Arayik Harutyunyan (the country’s former prime minister), Samvel Babayan, Vitaly Balasanyan and Foreign Minister Masis Mayilyan – have been nominated.
Speaking to the paper on Friday, David Ishkhanyan, a parliament member whose name is also on the list of potential contenders, said the party “always makes its decisions at the right time”. He said that are now amid preparations for the local government polls, adding that the presidential candidate will be nominated in autumn. Asked about Mayilyan’s chances for being their joint candidate, the lawmaker refrained from any specific answer. “We haven’t conducted any discussion over that. We are still considering the common challenges to understand future chances of consolidation and have our candidate named by consensus,” he said.