YEREVAN (Azatutyun.am)–A leader of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation launched stinging verbal attacks on the government as his party began its parliamentary election campaign on Monday.

Armen Rustamyan said Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s government may be trying to “replace old political and economic monopolies with new ones.” Rustamyan also claimed that Pashinyan is reluctant to limit sweeping prime-ministerial powers which he strongly criticized before coming to power in May.

Pashinyan voiced the criticism during Armenia’s controversial transition from a presidential to parliamentary system of government initiated by former President Serzh Sarkisian. He said that constitutional changes will give the prime minister too many powers at the expense of the ruling cabinet.

“We have still not abandoned what they described as a ‘super-prime-ministerial system,’” Rustamyan said at a campaign rally held by the ARF in downtown Yerevan. “We also don’t have guarantees that if [Pashinyan and his team] try to reinforce their power that will not lead to the super-prime-ministerial system’s transformation into a super-presidential system.”