YEREVAN — Centrist opposition leader Nikol Pashinian stands outside an office building in western Yerevan’s Malatia-Sebastia neighborhood, megaphone in hand, to take his criticism of the current government to the streets.<\/p>\n
Prime Minister Karen Karapetian stages public meetings in small towns across the country, where he endorses the right-wing, ruling Republican Party of Armenia and fields questions directly from those who will cast ballots on April 2.<\/p>\n
Gagik Tsarukian, pro-Russia leader of the center-right Tsarukian Alliance, is handed personal letters by dozens of voters who crowd around the millionaire former wrestling coach before each of his rallies — often delaying his speeches by half an hour.<\/p>\n
Raffi Hovannisian, one of three former ministers in the right-wing ORO Alliance, describes his strategy of shaking hands with everybody he sees as the “Hello Revolution.”<\/p>\n
More, perhaps, than in any previous Armenian parliamentary elections, candidates and their campaign teams are trying to engage voters directly to win support.<\/p>\n
Daniel Ioannisian, program coordinator for the nongovernmental group Union of Informed Citizens, says a major reason is that the April 2 vote is simply more important than previous parliamentary elections.<\/p>\n
He says that’s because Armenia is now transforming into a parliamentary republic.<\/p>\n
Under 2015 constitutional amendments, Armenia’s current semipresidential system is being phased out in a transition to be completed when President Serzh Sarkisian’s second term ends in 2018.<\/p>\n
Ioannisian notes that whoever controls parliament after the April 2 elections will also control the levers of power from 2018.<\/p>\n