Armenia to have Prime Minister within constitutional period of time, says ruling party faction

The HHK(ruling party) faction will not obstruct the PM election sitting of the parliament, and quorum will be ensured, HHK faction leader Vahram Baghdasaryan told reporters.

“The sitting will not be failed. The Republic of Armenia will have a Prime Minister, we will not obstruct the sitting from taking place, quorum will be ensured. Armenia will have a Prime Minister in a constitutional period of time, because the country cannot be kept paralyzed,” he said.

The HHK faction isn’t yet specifying how its lawmakers will vote, however Baghdasaryan noted that it isn’t correct to leave it to free voting, because in that case, according to him “the party can lose its face”.

“If today it doesn’t happen, we must have new elections of Prime Minister within seven days, otherwise the Constitution requires the dissolution of the parliament, which will be a significant setback for our country”, he said.

According to him, snap elections can’t have a positive impact on the development of the country.

“If snap elections were a necessity, there would be complaints in 2017, when the parliament was formed, however everyone was happy after those elections,” he said.

Asked if the HHK will have a candidate if in fact another election was to be held 7 days later, the HHK faction leader said: “We have said that we won’t nominate our own candidate, we didn’t nominate, but we haven’t discussed this issue for the future, we don’t have any such intention or decision, but everything depends on political developments”.

Asked if third President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan, the president of the HHK party, participated in the April 30 sitting of the ruling party’s executive body, Baghdasaryan said he chaired the sitting as the head of the party, but didn’t interfere in political processes.

Baghdasaryan ruled out that he can do any action under pressure. “Our generation is growing up in this country, we must think about the future, what progress will our country, our statehood have six months later, 1 year later, or will it have [progress] at all”, he said.

The HHK faction leader said Serzh Sargsyan’s resignation was a result of wisdom and prudence. “When a part of the people are carrying out demonstrations ahead of April 24 and there are two options – either go for clashes, or you must take some step. The person himself refused. But one can’t tie the country’s future with demonstrations, assemblies and pressure. When you are speaking about the fate of the country you must already think ideological”.