All eyes on parliament as highly anticipated second round of PM election voting to kick off shortly

YEREVAN, MAY 8, ARMENPRESS. Armenian Members of Parliament are set to elect a Prime Minister today during the second round of voting. The sole candidate for Prime Minister is opposition MP Nikol Pashinyan, head of the parliament’s Yelk faction.

The extraordinary session of the parliament where lawmakers are expected to vote will kick off 12:00.

Two other factions in addition to Yelk have endorsed Pashinyan’s candidacy – the ARF and the Tsarukyan.

Pashinyan will need at least 53 votes in the 105-seat unicameral parliament to be named Prime Minister. As this is the second round of vote, if lawmakers fail to elect a PM today also, then the parliament will be dissolved and early elections will take place.

As required by the Constitution, a new government must be formed within 15 days after electing a Prime Minister.

An elected Prime Minister must nominate deputy Prime Ministers and ministers of his Cabinet to the President within five days after taking office. After the formation of the government, the Prime Minister must present his Cabinet’s action plan for parliamentary debates within 20 days. Lawmakers have seven days for debating the action plan.

In the event of the parliament’s rejection of the action plan, the elected PM resigns and new elections of PM take place. If a new Prime Minister is elected in the second elections and again the action plan isn’t approved, the parliament is dissolved and snap elections take place.

Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan, the third President of Armenia who took office as PM April 17, resigned amid mass protests on April 23.

Opposition leader Nikol Pashinyan, head of the Yelk (Exit) faction, was the sole candidate in the first round of elections on May 1. Pashinyan, the MP who spearheaded massive demonstrations throughout the country for about two weeks, failed to be elected by a 56-45 vote.

There are 4 factions in the Armenian parliament. The Republican Party (HHK) faction, the ruling party of Armenia, has 58 seats in the 105-seat unicameral parliament of Armenia – known as the National Assembly. The ARF faction – (Armenian Revolutionary Federation aka Dashnaktsutyun), has 7 seats. The Tsarukyan faction has 31 seats, and the Yelk faction has 9 seats.

The ruling party said it will not nominate their own candidate for the second round, just like in the first round. However, the HHK said it will not block the election and will support it.

ENGLISH: Editor/Translator - Stepan Kocharyan