Do not believe the results of sociological polls in Armenia; they are all manipulative. Political scientist Armen Badalyan told this to Armenian News-NEWS.am.
“That is, there is no institute of independent sociological polls in Armenia; we cannot know whose [popularity] rating is rising and whose is falling,” he added.
According to the political scientist, in order for the snap parliamentary elections to take place on June 20, PM Nikol Pashinyan must resign in late April or early May, and after that—under the Constitution—, he should not hold office. “Constitutionalists explain that if he resigns, he should not continue in office. But as we understand it, at the moment, the incumbent prime minister will resign and will not leave [office], holding the June 20 elections as acting [PM]—as in the case of the previous snap elections,” he said.
As per Badalyan, Pashinyan may use administrative resources in the June 20 elections, but not in full. “You can get 2-3% of votes with administrative resources, but you need to get 50+%. It is almost impossible to commit such degree of [electoral] fraud without distributing money; that is, in this case the ruling force does not have the network to distribute money, which its rivals have. But, also, it will prevent—through the police force—them from getting votes by distributing money,” he said in particular.
And assessing the chances of Pashinyan’s political force in the forthcoming elections, Badalyan said that everything depends on the election campaign of the other forces. “If all the forces running in the elections be completely ignorant, of course the ruling political force can get even 100%. But if they conduct a successful election campaign, the ruling force has no chance not only to win, but also to become an influential force,” he added.