If Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan is elected for a third term, it will “lead to increased violence, restrictions on freedoms, and result in a dictatorship,” according to Edmon Marukyan, chairman of the Bright Armenia Party, speaking with party members near the government building during the election campaign.

“Today’s hybrid semi-authoritarian regime would then become a fundamentally authoritarian regime. We have already seen what a third term can lead to,” he said, according to Sputnik Armenia.

According to Marukyan, under Armenia’s Constitution, amended in 2015, the prime minister serves as the country’s chief authority over the police system and therefore bears primary responsibility for what he described as acts of violence and attacks carried out in recent days against activists from various political forces.

“This is selective justice. If something happens against the authorities, although nothing has happened to them, there is an immediate response. But when it concerns an opposition activist, investigations drag on for months. They search for surveillance cameras, try to identify faces, create composite sketches, and eventually bury the case and cover it up. We strongly condemn this approach and demand that the person primarily responsible for public order put an end to these outrages,” he stated.

The politician also reiterated his confidence that his party will be represented in the National Assembly and said that, with its participation, a compromise parliament and a government led by a compromise prime minister could be formed.

The election campaign that began on May 8 will continue until June 5. June 6 will be a day of silence, and elections will be held on June 7. On May 25, it became known that the Alliance Progressive Centrist Party had submitted a withdrawal application, based on which the Central Electoral Commission invalidated the registration of the party’s electoral list. As a result, ballot paper number 13 will not be included in the upcoming elections.