Early parliamentary elections in Armenia must be held in December, rather than in May, as has been proposed by the parliamentary majority, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian insisted on Wednesday.
“Those who say the elections must be held in May, not now, want this political crisis to continue for another eight months … We disagree with that logic. Those who are guided by that logic place their parochial interests above state interests,” Pashinian told reporters.
“There is a political crisis in country and I can’t understand people telling us not to resolve that crisis. We are going to resolve that crisis,” he said.
Accordingly, Pashinian made clear that he will press ahead with his plans to resign later this month and thus pave the way for snap elections.
“We will move forward according to our plan and I think it’s obvious that the demand for pre-term parliamentary elections is a popular demand and I find it hard to imagine a person or persons who are going to resist that,” he said.
The Armenian constitution stipulates that the National Assembly must be dissolved if it fails to replace a prime minister within two weeks. Pashinian claimed to have received on Tuesday night assurances from the Republican (HHK) and Prosperous Armenia (BHK) parties that they will not install another premier in case of his tactical resignation.
The HHK and the BHK, which control the two largest parliamentary factions, denied that. They said they proposed instead that the snap elections be held in May 2019.
In a statement released on Wednesday, the HHK reiterated that political forces need more time to prepare for the elections and enact anti-fraud amendments to the Armenian Electoral Code. It argued that the Pashinian government’s policy program says the vote should held by June 2019 under an amended code.
A member of the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) monitoring political developments in Armenia made a similar point.
“While we understand the call for early elections, we urge the authorities, and indeed all political stakeholders, to ensure that any early elections fully respect European standards and norms for democratic elections, and that all political forces have proper and sufficient time to prepare themselves for any such elections,” said Yuliya Lovochkina, a PACE rapporteur on Armenia.
“This is especially important if the Electoral Code will indeed be changed, as some political stakeholders have called for,” she added in a statement.
Lovochkina noted that less than half of eligible voters took part in the September 23 municipal elections in Yerevan which Pashinian’s My Step bloc won by a landslide. “The turnout made it clear that public trust in the political process is still low,” she said. “Therefore it is essential that the next parliamentary elections are perceived and accepted as democratic and fair by all political competitors and stakeholders.”
My Step won over 80 percent of the vote in the Armenian capital. Citing this strong performance, Pashinian has said that he has a strong mandate to push for the holding of parliamentary elections “as soon as possible.”
The 43-year-old premier, who swept to power in May in a wave of mass protests, controls only a handful of seats in the current National Assembly.
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