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Opposition supporters start blocking central streets in Yerevan

The protesters blocked Tumanyan Street, Pushkin Street and Mashtots Avenue and are carrying out marches and demonstrations in several parts of the city

YEREVAN, April 29. /TASS/. Armenian opposition activists started blocking several central streets in Yerevan on Sunday, TASS reports from the venue.

"The power of the Republican Party in our country has ended. We want student councils to be non-party. The republicans monopolized universities, and there was no free academic atmosphere [there,]" leader of the opposition student movement David Petrosyan told TASS.

The protesters blocked Tumanyan Street, Pushkin Street and Mashtots Avenue and are carrying out marches and demonstrations in several parts of the city. The police are monitoring protest rallies, but not trying to suppress them.

Opposition activists started mass rallies in Armenia on April 13. On Monday, Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan resigned amid protests, and on Wednesday the ruling coalition dissolved after the Dashnaktsutyun party had withdrawn from it. An election of the prime minister will be held in the parliament on May 1. Three parliamentary factions - Tsarukyan Bloc, Dashnaktsutyun and Yelk - already declared that they are ready to vote for Pashinyan’s candidacy. The ruling Republican Party of Armenia will not nominate its candidate.

Pashinyan (an MP from the Yelk faction) will become prime minister if 53 out of 105 (a simple majority) of MPs of the one-chamber parliament vote for him. The faction of the ruling Republic Party of Armenia has 58 seats in the parliament, Yelk has nine, and Dashnaktsutyun, seven. The Tsarukyan Bloc has 31 more seats in the parliament.