Ruzanna Khachatryan, a spokeswoman for the People's Party of Armenia, a member of the Justice bloc, told RIA Novosti that the opposition would hold its next protest rally in Yerevan's Freedom Square at 7 p.m. (Moscow time) on Saturday.
According to her, at the rally, leaders of the opposition were going to inform people of the events that have taken place since yesterday.
On Friday, Freedom Square hosted the first joint protest rally of all the opposition forces - the Justice bloc, the National Unity party and the Communist Party of Armenia. The organizers maintain that the rally had brought as many as 30,000 to 40,000 people. The police, however, report that only 6,000 to 8,000 protesters took part in the rally.
The opposition leaders set the noon of April 12, Monday as the deadline for the authorities to make amendments to the national law "On Referendum".
Earlier, opposition leaders had approached Armenia's Constitutional Court with a petition to annul the official results of last year's presidential election won by Robert Kocharyan.
The Constitutional Court dismissed the claim and proposed holding a nationwide vote of confidence referendum in the next 12 months as well as making due amendments to the country's Election Code. Later, however, Chairman of the Constitutional Court Gagik Arutunyan issued a statement where he claimed that the Court's proposal for holding a vote of confidence referendum was no longer relevant.
On Friday, the three political parties (the Republican Party, Orinaz Yerkir and Dashnaktsutyun) comprising the ruling coalition announced that they refused to accept the motion brought forward by opposition factions in the Armenian parliament demanding a nationwide vote of confidence. The statement issued by the ruling parties refers to the opposition's demands as "non-constitutional" and inconsistent with the country's legislation".
As a result, the Friday protest rally developed into the opposition's non-stop sitting demonstration in Freedom Square. The opposition leaders announced that the demonstration would go on until the authorities adopted a decision on holding a nationwide vote of confidence referendum.
The current situation in Yerevan is calm and stable, with the public transport, shops, cafes and restaurants working as usual.
