YEREVAN, OCTOBER 3, ARMENPRESS. The Republican Party of Armenia (HHK) has proposed to Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan to hold early elections of parliament in May, 2019, in which case they can also discuss their non-nomination of a candidate for prime minister, according to HHK Vice-President Armen Ashotyan.

“The most common compromise option which was suggested to the prime minister was to postpone the elections until May, manage to reform the electoral code, adopt the Venice commission’s recommendations regarding this code, allow other parties to also prepare for the elections, calm down the situation and go for elections. In this case not nominating a prime ministerial candidate could’ve been a part of our suggested package,” Ashotyan said.

Ashotyan says that the PM has listened to their suggestions but no agreement has been made.

On October 2, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan called on his supporters to rally outside the parliament building after Republicans convened an extraordinary session to adopt a bill on amending the rules of procedure of the parliament. The Tsarukyan and ARF factions supported the bill. The Yelk faction disapproved the bill.

PM Nikol Pashinyan fired ministers from his Cabinet representing the Tsarukyan and ARF factions.

The controversial bill is an amendment to the Rules of Procedure law of the parliament, whereby in the event of a parliament session being unable to be held because of lack of quorum, or if lawmakers are anyhow prevented from participating, it will be considered interrupted rather than failed, with a possibility of resuming at a later date. The aim of the bill is apparently a limitation of possible circumstances of dissolution of parliament.

Thousands rallied outside the parliament building, where MPs were literally besieged.

The PM entered the building to hold negotiations. After more than an hour of talks, he exited the building and said “Today we showed that early elections are a pan-Armenian demand and the political forces that will oppose this political demand declare war against their own people. My impression is that our colleagues from the HHK, ARF and Tsarukyan factions realized this message.”

The Prime Minister also said he will resign in order for snap elections to take place as soon as possible.

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan