The announcement was made on Monday evening in Yerevan by Anna Grigorian, a lawmaker representing the alliance in the current parliament, during an event held at the Karen Demirchian Sports and Concert Complex.
The Hayastan Alliance will comprise the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun), a longstanding ally of Kocharian, and the Forward Party, whose leader finished second as the candidate of an alliance of opposition parties in last fall’s hotly contested municipal elections in Armenia’s Vagharshapat community.
“We are determined. Our goal is victory,” Kocharian said in his speech, expressing confidence that “the current government, which embodies evil, will be defeated.”
Hayastan, led by Kocharian, came in a distant second with 21 percent of the vote in the last parliamentary elections held in 2021. The ex-president has given several indications in recent months that he intended once again to top his alliance’s list of candidates in Armenia’s upcoming elections.
At a press conference in late January, Kocharian, who served as Armenia’s president for two consecutive five-year terms from 1998 to 2008, said: “As a leader capable of achieving quite serious successes in crisis situations and who has done it twice, I can do it a third time.”
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian has expressed confidence that his ruling Civil Contract party will retain its parliamentary majority after the June 7 vote.
After visiting the southern provinces of Syunik and Vayots Dzor over the weekend as part of his ruling Civil Contract party’s regular regional tours, Pashinian said it is “quite realistic” for his party to secure a constitutional majority in the next parliament.
According to a poll conducted in February by the International Republican Institute, 24 percent of voters in Armenia would vote for Pashinian’s party if elections were held next Sunday.
The poll showed that the Strong Armenia Party, led by Russian-Armenian billionaire Samvel Karapetian, would come second with 9 percent. Kocharian’s Hayastan Alliance and the bloc led by wealthy businessman Gagik Tsarukian were tied for third place with 3 percent each.
The same survey also found that about 30 percent of voters in Armenia remain undecided.