Pashinyan hints new election will be held in 2018

By Asbarez | Wednesday, 16 May 2018

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan chair cabinet meeting

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan chair cabinet meeting

YEREVAN (RFE/RL)—Prime Minister Minister Nikol Pashinyan suggested on Tuesday that fresh parliamentary elections sought by his political team will be held in Armenia later this year.

Pashinyan demanded the conduct of such elections immediately after tens of thousands of his supporters demonstrating in the streets of Yerevan forced his predecessor Serzh Sarkisian to resign on April 23. Observers believe that he and his political allies would win them by landslide.

Sarkisian’s Republican Party of Armenia holds the majority of seats in the current parliament. It is therefore in a position to block key bills drafted by Pashinyan’s government.

The premier was asked by reporters about fresh elections as he walked from one ministry building to another to present newly appointed members of his cabinet to their staffs. “We will discuss that,” he said.

“I think this year,” he replied when asked about possible election dates.

The idea of snap polls is supported in principle not only by Pashinyan’s Yelk alliance but also the two other parliamentary minority factions: the Tsarukyan Bloc and the Armenian Revolutionary Federation. Both groups have received ministerial posts in the new government.

The Republican Party of Armenia’s position on the issue remains unclear. Senior representatives of the formerly ruling party have only signaled that it will likely approve the Pashinyan government’s policy program which will be submitted to the National Assembly by the end of this month.

Pashinyan seemed confident about the program’s approval by lawmakers. But he at the same time warned: “I also think that nobody should succumb to a temptation to wrongly interpret the political situation.”


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