Talks didn’t lead to consensus, sides agreed to continue discussions – MP Edmon Marukyan

A consensus was not reached as result of the discussion between the Prime Minister and parliamentary factions, Yelk faction MP Edmon Marukyan told reporters today.

“During yesterday’s discussions the prime minister presented his opinion, presented what he had said publicly, that he will resign, after which the parliament will not elect a prime minister twice, the parliament will be dissolved and early elections will be held by virtue of law. No consensus was reached at the discussions and we exited by agreeing that this kind of discussions will be continous. Today a Q&A is expected with Cabinet members at the parliament, the prime minister will arrive, I think there will be contacts with factions,” he said.

He said that the factions have insisted that they are in favor of the early elections, but that their preferred timing is May of next year.

“The prime minister said that the elections must take place in December. He is also ready to adopt the new electoral code in one month. If it isn’t adopted, we will have to go for the elections with the old electoral code, which contains the ranked system. We have recommended revoking it, because it was mainly used by oligarchs for consolidation of votes, but under the current political situation even if such nominations happen this mechanism won’t work,” he said.

According to him, representatives of the factions claimed that they won’t nominate candidates for prime minister until early elections.