YEREVAN, February 5 (RIA Novosti) - Armenian presidential candidate Paruyr Hayrikyan, who was injured last week in an apparent assassination attempt, has no plans to ask the country's Constitutional Court to postpone the forthcoming elections, his lawyer Levon Bagdasaryan said on Tuesday.
The 63-year-old leader of the Union for National Self-Determination was shot in the shoulder near his house in the capital Yerevan late on Thursday. The bullet was later safely removed by surgeons but Hayrikyan currently remains in a hospital.
According to Armenia’s constitution, elections can be delayed for two weeks if a candidate faces "circumstances of insuperable force."
Such a delay would have to be initially requested by the candidate himself, and then it is up to the country’s Constitutional Court to decide on the issue, said earlier David Arutunyan, who chairs Armenia’s parliamentary commission on legal issues.
Hayrikyan is one of eight candidates standing in Armenia’s February 18 presidential election, which analysts predict is likely to return incumbent President Serzh Sargsyan for a second term.
