YEREVAN, MAY 1, ARMENPRESS. Candidate for the post of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan presented his vision for economic development if elected at the extraordinary sitting of the Armenian parliament.

Pashinyan vowed to ensure equality before the law for everyone. “First of all this concerns the Prime Minister, his family, relatives and friends. The use of tools of power for business reasons will be ruled out. The declaration system of high ranking officials will be changed in a way that the people of Armenia is sure that they clearly know what property is owned by each official and how the structure of this is changed during the tenure. Illicit enrichment simultaneously with tenure must bring along specific consequences”.

Pashinyan emphasized that as Prime Minister he will guarantee that no economic monopolies exist in Armenia, that no one will be banned from importing any given product. “We aren’t planning to do this by pressuring someone, persecuting, but by indisputably abolishing existing bans, by ensuring equal economic competition, eliminating cases of abusing dominant positions”, he said.

Education and innovation should be at the foundation of the economy, the diversification of the sector will be among priorities. Pashinyan says he will focus on all branches of the economy in his economic policy – insuring from possible foreign and domestic shocks.

He emphasized that solely expecting material assistance from the Diaspora shouldn’t be only thing in the relations with the Diaspora – the huge material and human resources of the Diaspora should be maximally involved in statehood-building.

The extraordinary sitting has kicked off in the Armenian parliament where lawmakers are debating the election of a new Prime Minister.

The only nominated candidate for Prime Minister is opposition leader Nikol Pashinyan.

Pashinyan was nominated by the opposition Yelk faction.

Two other factions – Tsarukyan and the ARF – have endorsed the opposition MPs candidacy.

Pashinyan will need at least 53 votes to be elected Prime Minister, which means he will require at least 6 votes from the ruling party.

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 alliance has 31 seats, and the Yelk faction has 9 seats. 

English –translator/editor: Stepan Kocharyan