Five months before parliamentary elections in Armenia, the marginalized opposition is playing all its cards against a ruling elite that is experiencing a host of internal rumbles.

In fact, a political landscape has come to the fore where you can’t talk about an opposition, a fake opposition, a hidden faction in support of the government, left, right or center. Nothing in the way of new initiatives is being planned; neither in the non-political agenda and it cannot impact on public opinion.

In this chaotic situation, all the political players are comfortable in the positions allotted them and are merely spewing out vindictive and gossip regarding the others.

The opposition has accepted the fact it cannot fight against the opposition.

On the one hand, the ARF states that there is no need for snap elections, in the name of stability, but on the other, it called for a no-confidence vote regarding the government. It knows full well that in just five months the current government will resign.

The Heritage Party, aiming to present itself as an alternative, presents a candidate for speaker of the parliament. It too realizes that all this will change in a matter of months. The party then goes and blames the ARF for not taking part in this charade.

The non-parliamentary opposition, the Armenian National Congress, has started to spend energy weeding out internal enemies.

This self-destruction on the part of the opposition just serves to help the government.

The only question that really matters is how the internal opposition with the two forces in the ruling government will play out and end. How will the Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP) participate in the upcoming parliamentary elections? This question contains more intrigue than any ideological or political content. Nevertheless, all have taken a wait and see approach.

Such an approach, while understandable in terms of tactics, really isn’t justified, The Prosperous Armenia Party , in all its aspects, does not differ one iota from the Republican Party, the other ruling party.

Even if the PAP was to leave the coalition and get elected, nothing would substantively change. On the contrary, given that the PAP serves the interests of small and large oligarchs, it becomes clear that this will be the party’s first priority while in power.

The PAP participated in the 2007 election and in its campaign platform it clearly stated that it would remove all artificial monopolies and the oligarchs.

More than four years have passed, but the PAP, a pivotal player in the ruling coalition, has taken no such steps. Thus, there is no reason to believe that the PAP will change direction once coming to power.

In fact, if the PAP splits from the coalition, it will seek to consolidate the other political forces around it, but not in the spirit of cooperative partners. It will seek to dictate the terms of such a partnership.

It will use the same political methods that the current president is now using to keep the coalition together.

Those forces that agree to the PAP’s terms will flock to the side of the PAP. They will do so because they have realized they are spent forces and have pushed to the margins. In addition, it is not those on the margins that will be seen as the true opposition, but the PAP itself.

If the PAP remains within the coalition, then the ruling regime is assured of victory. Given the current chaos reigning within the ranks of the opposition, this is a given.

In the end, whatever the PAP decides, the result will be the same. Either way it will be a defeat for the political system and for society at large.

For this not to happen, true alternatives and values must be created within the ranks of the opposition and society with which the PAP and the regime will have to take into account.

This is what is needed to restore the political balance in the country.