YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 2, ARMENPRESS. Speaker of Parliament Ara Babloyan has released a statement about the dissolution of parliament.

“After the prime minister’s resignation and not electing a prime minister twice the parliament is beginning the process of ceasing its duties by virtue of law,” Babloyan said in the address.

“According to the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia, the incumbent parliament will function until the first session of the [next parliament]. Clearly, the Members of Parliament composition of the [incumbent] parliament stood out with reasoning and tolerance. This was a result of our colleagues’ high professionalism, political will and wisdom. The last one and a half year was entirely enough to be convinced that our lawmakers have their own [traits] and they protect their political stance until the end in any issue. But at difficult times, which weren’t few in the past months, often by [ignoring] party interests and views, all of them united around the idea of maintaining stability in Armenia and Artsakh and did not lead the country to new turmoil,” he said, thanking MPs.

He expressed a special thanks to those MPs who “regardless of old and new realities, in these ever-changing times did not betray their principles and were guided by their inner convictions and consciousness when making decisions”.

“Let’s hope that everything will be OK”, he said, and wished the next parliament “law-making effective work and most importantly responsibility”.

The full text of the statement is available in Armenian.

On November 1, the Armenian parliament did not re-elect Nikol Pashinyan, the sole candidate, as Prime Minister in the second and final round, as intended.

Thus, the parliament was dissolved by virtue of law.

None of the lawmakers voted against or in favor, while 13 MPs abstained.

Pashinyan was nominated as a formality by the Yelk and Tsarukyan factions as lawmakers were expected to deliberately vote him down in order to dissolve the parliament – a requirement for calling early elections.

The first round failed to elect a prime minister, as intended.

During the first round, the Yelk faction nominated Nikol Pashinyan in a technical maneuver because the Constitution says that a “vote” must take place.

Pashinyan took office after massive protests in April forced president-turned PM Serzh Sargsyan to resign. But Sargsyan’s Republican Party (HHK) still had most seats in the 105-seat parliament. Since taking office, Nikol Pashinyan has numerously said that the incumbent parliament doesn’t represent the people and that early elections should take place as soon as possible.

He resigned on October 16 to trigger the process which is required to lead to early elections.

This is the first time in the history of the Republic of Armenia when a parliament is being disbanded. 

Later on the same day, President Armen Sarkissian signed an order on dissolving the parliament and calling early election of parliament on December 9.

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan