Yerevan/Mediamax/. Richard Kirakosyan, Director of Center for Regional Studies, said today that the Armenian presidential elections held on February 18 "were a lost opportunity for the Armenian democracy".

Answering Mediamax's question during his meeting with journalists, Richard Kirakosyan said that on February 18, Armenia "took the exam of elections but lost its opportunity".

"The elections weren't as good as they should have been. Of course, Armenia managed to retain its positions on the international level in terms of lack of cases of violation and mass frauds, but it was a lost opportunity from the standpoint of democracy", the expert said.

Assessing the pre-election phase, Richard Kirakosyan said that the elections were "the most non-competitive ones in the history of independent Armenia".

Besides, the expert believes that the elections revealed the ghosts and corpses of the Armenian political field as well.

"Second Armenian President Robert Kocharyan is the political ghost while "Prosperous Armenia" party is the political corpse. We saw the weakening of the PAP. In the post-election phase, the PAP's statement showed the whole despair of this political force", said the political scientist.

Speaking about the post-election situation, he noted that the situation reflects the crisis of trust both to the authorities and opposition. According to him, the opposition now faces 2 important challenges - not to lose the initiative and present a clear action plan.