YEREVAN, APRIL 30, ARMENPRESS. During today’s parliamentary Q&A involving the Republican Party and PM candidate Nikol Pashinyan, lawmakers from the ruling party’s faction were questioning the opposition leader on a wide range of issues ahead of the May 1 election.

Republican lawmaker Khosrov Harutyunyan asked Nikol Pashinyan on the future Cabinet if the Yelk faction leader is elected Prime Minister, and noted that this question remains open, which maintains uncertainty.

Harutyunyan mentioned that the current situation requires seeking exits which will create hope for tomorrow among the society.

“I am certain that the stance of the Republican Party on not blocking your election speaks about this – to try and jointly find exits. I would like to ask a specific question, which in my opinion is very important. Clearly, the government is the institution of implementing all kinds of promises which are being voiced during rallies and throughout election campaigns. At the same time, it is obvious that authority isn’t an abstract process, it is a very personified process: Therefore, many would be interested to know who will be among your Cabinet, in the event of you being elected Prime Minister, I hope you will succeed tomorrow. For example, I am interested who will be the first deputy Prime Minister, who will be the defense minister, the minister of foreign affairs, the finance minister,” Harutyunyan asked, and added that this isn’t solely a rhetoric question and doesn’t seek to satisfy anybody’s political interest.

According to Harutyunyan, depending on who will be in that important positions – Nikol Pashinyan’s promises to the society can either be realized or not. “Let’s agree that the society, which actually supports you, also has the right to imagine the outline of the future government, which can actually inspire hope with its recognition, professional qualities that this entire positive capital will be transformed into a serious political capital,” the ruling party MP said.

In response, Pashinyan said that he has seen high assessment over what happened in Armenia especially in foreign press.

“I would like to say directly, I find that this is the merit of not any specific side involved in this political process, because we all understand that the situation can fully go out of control from a small provocation. I would like to once again record that I highly value that all of us, being perhaps on the highest degree of tension, were nevertheless able to maintain self-control, sense of responsibility and this speaks about our collective advantages,” Pashinyan said.

At the same time, Pashinyan mentioned that the decision making mechanism is a subjective factor, but his perception about decisions is the following: the decisions must be maximally discussed and maximally institutional. “The level of establishment of the state is determined by to what extent the decision-making is impacted on, the subjective perceptions of officials by counterbalanced institutions’ conclusions. Frankly speaking, I am in favor of the second approach, because the chance of error of an institution is far less than the chance of error of an individual,” he said.

Regarding the formation of a government, Pashinyan noted that this process is taking place in a force majeure situation, and the appointment of a Prime Minister, the formation of a government should be a tool for overcoming the crisis.

“If this existed in an ordinary electoral process, then the process of the government’s formation would proceed under a different logic. The first issue, which is required for answering your question is the following: The  support, the circle which indirectly becomes the implementer of the election of Prime Minister must be recorded. This circle must be recorded, and the Cabinet must be discussed as a result of discussions with this circle, because our goal is the establishment of an atmosphere of solidarity. We do not seek to create a situation that one part of the society or the political arena says that they have won and proves that the other has lost”, Pashinyan said, adding that they seek to establish an atmosphere of solidarity, where it will be possible to discuss all issues of the agenda in peaceful, calm conditions, the existence of which is accepted with the established fact of this moment. “That is, the future [Cabinet] will be formed depending on what political picture tomorrow’s voting will show.  The government will be formed within the framework of discussions and political consultations within the framework of this picture. I don’t want to make ambitious statements now, but I think that our aspiration must be the formation of a government of agreement,” he said.

In turn, Harutyunyan repeated that the question wasn’t a rhetoric one. “By the way, I don’t think that even you haven’t outlined the formation, at least the cornerstone actors. If you aren’t voicing their names, you are simply increasing uncertainty, and if they don’t exist, it gets even more uncertain. The figure of Prime Minister alone, which even deserves the unconditional confidence of a big segment of the society, isn’t enough for turning this all into reality”, Harutyunyan said.

In response, Pashinyan said that lately the main topic of their distant discussions was to regulate the political process within the framework of the constitution and law.

“The constitution and laws clearly define that the government must be formed within 15 days after the appointment of a Prime Minister. Meaning, our constitution and laws do not state that the Cabinet’s composition should be published initially, and then the PM must be decided. We don’t have the setting for recording the victory and loss of either of the parties in the Cabinet, our goal is to form a working atmosphere, an atmosphere of solidarity. Our program was the following from the very beginning: If a Prime Minister is elected in tomorrow’s vote, the motivation of each who voted in favor must be very clearly understood.  The formation of the government must take place as a result of discussions. If the task would be that our party had won in the elections and must form a government, naturally we have our staff base, but we aren’t coming to commit a “staff slaughter” and to substitute [non-our guys with our guys]. That is why the answer of the question depends from the developments of tomorrow,” Pashinyan said.

On April 23, at 16:00, Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan resigned as widespread protests entered the 11th day. 

On the same day, as required by law, the government resigned.

First Deputy PM Karen Karapetyan was named acting PM at an emergency Cabinet meeting.

The Speaker of Parliament announced that elections of a new Prime Minister will be held May 1.

On April 28, HHK, the ruling party, said it will not nominate a candidate for Prime Minister in the upcoming election.

The Tsarukyan faction also said it will not nominate a candidate and endorsed “the people’s candidate”.

On April 29, the ARF said they endorse the candidacy of Nikol Pashinyan for the upcoming election on May 1.

On April 30 the opposition Yelk faction officially nominated Pashinyan for the upcoming PM election.  The three other factions – the HHK, Tsarukyan, and ARF, announced they will not nominate a candidate.

There are 4 factions in the Armenian parliament. The Republican Party (HHK) faction, the ruling party of Armenia, has 58 seats in the 105-seat unicameral parliament of Armenia – known as the National Assembly.  The ARF faction – (Armenian Revolutionary Federation aka Dashnaktsutyun), has 7 seats. The Tsarukyan alliance has 31 seats, and the Yelk faction has 9 seats. 

English –translator/editor: Stepan Kocharyan