YEREVAN, MARCH 17, NOYAN TAPAN. No agreement on running for May 31 Yerevan councillor members elections has been reached between the Armenian National Congress and the Zharangutiun (Heritage) party during official negotiations. Deputy Anahit Bakhshian, the Chairwoman of the Zharangutiun (Heritage) Board, reported to journalists on March 17 at the National Assembly that at the meeting held the day before and lasting until the midnight the Board discussed the variant of electoral roll proposed by ANC. According to it, the candidature of Levon Ter-Petrosian is in the first place and of Chairman of the People's Party of Armenia Stepan Demirchian in the second place. Zharangutiun was proposed in total 8 places on the list, including the third place. According to A. Bakhshian, the party Board came to the conviction that the electoral roll "does not reflect the party potential and proposed a new, "more competitive" variant of electoral roll: head of Zharangutiun parliamentary faction Armen Martirosian in the first place, L. Ter-Petrosian in the second place, Zharangutiun founder, NA deputy Raffi Hovannisian in the third place. ANC turned down that variant. In response to journalists' questions A. Bakhshian said that they do not consider not coming to an agreement a split, as in politics they attach importance to principles and ideology. She also expressed the hope that "public resonance will result in ANC and Zharangutiun again sitting at a negotiations table." At the same time she did not exclude, either, the possibility of oppoisition's running for the elections "by individual columns" mentioning that on March 20 the party will finally clarify the format of running for the elections and the electoral roll.

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