YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 12, ARMENPRESS. The 2018 December 9 early election of parliament concluded the political phase of the revolution, endowing the parliament and government with high legitimacy, PM Nikol Pashinyan told lawmakers while presenting the government’s Action Plan.

“I would like to congratulate us all on the occasion of the 2018 December 9 parliamentary election. This election of parliament was unique in the history of the Third Republic, because it was assessed by all local and international observers, international organizations and generally the international community as free, fair, competitive, transparent and democratic. The Armenian community gave the same assessment. The December 9 parliamentary election was the first in the history of the Third Republic of Armenia the results of which were not disputed neither at the Constitutional Court nor publicly. Therefore, we have a parliament having very high level of legitimacy and a government having an unprecedented high level of legitimacy. We can say for the record that the political phase of the revolution in Armenia was concluded with the early election on December 9, the changes that took place in the country became irreversible. This, of course, doesn’t mean that the political system established in Armenia today is flawless and it doesn’t need further perfection and serious reforms. This simply means that there cannot be a turning back to the previous criminal-oligarchic administration regime, and we are only left to free our country from the last remaining bits of criminal-oligarchic and corruption administration,” he said.

“For the first time citizens of Armenia were electing not only a parliament but also a prime minister in charge of leading the country, and therefore it is an exclusive great honor for me to receive the vote of confidence of Armenian citizens as candidate for prime minister from the My Step alliance,” Pashinyan said, adding that he finds himself to be the prime minister of all, even those who didn’t vote in the election, a prime minister “whose mission is to serve the state, the fatherland and the people”.

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan