There will be no early parliamentary or presidential elections in Armenia, presidential chief of staff Karen Karapetyan said on Tuesday.
The next parliamentary election in Armenia is due in the spring of 2012 and the presidential election in the winter of 2013.
The opposition Armenian National Congress (ANC), comprised of about 20 political parties and organizations, has been pushing for early elections.
Karapetyan said the ANC demand was “simply an end in itself” and “unacceptable.”
ANC leader Levon Ter-Petrosyan, Armenia’s first president, said the congress was ready for dialogue with the authorities, but Karapetyan also rejected the proposed “dialogue format” – at the level of delegations.
“The formula ‘negotiations between delegations’ suggests interstate mechanisms, not dialogue between the government and the opposition, mechanisms for which already exist in our country,” Karapetyan said.
YEREVAN, June 7 (RIA Novosti)