 Republic Party leader Aram Sarkisian and Heritage Party leader Raffi Hovannisian
The Armenian opposition camp also includes a number of other parties that are smaller in size but are clearly perceived to be more dangerous by the authorities. Their leaders rarely appear on Kocharian-controlled television channels.
The first and foremost of them is the radical Republic Party led by Aram Sarkisian, a brother of the slain Prime Minister Vazgen Sarkisian. Republic holds some of the now defunct Justice bloc's election commission seats.
Sarkisian makes no secret of his plans to use the elections for staging an anti-government "revolution" in Armenia. Shortly before the election, Repbulic united with two other opposition groups -- the New Times Party and the Impeachment bloc -- to hold joint demonstrations both before the May 12 vote, and afterwards, if they consider the results to have been rigged.
Also likely to hold street protests is the Heritage Party of Raffi Hovannisian, a US-born former foreign minister who seems to enjoy a large degree of public sympathy. Heritage was controversially forced out of its state-owned offices in central Yerevan last year and has accused the authorities of harassing its activists across the country. Hovannisian has expressed sympathy for the actions of the Republic-New Times-Impeachment coalition.
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