At least ten lawmakers representing the former ruling Republican Party of Armenia (HHK) have broken ranks to voice support for Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s efforts to force snap parliamentary elections in December.
They include Gevorg Kostanian, the chairman of the Armenian parliament committee on legal affairs who served as prosecutor-general from 2013-2016.
Speaking to RFE/RL’s Armenian service on Monday, Kostanian said that Pashinian is “honest in his goals and desires,” enjoys overwhelming popular support and must therefore be able to execute his political plans.
Nine other members of the HHK’s parliamentary faction on Tuesday signed a statement that called for a quick dissolution of the current National Assembly. “The Armenian people stand by these authorities,” one of them, Knyaz Hasanov, told reporters.
The statement was also signed by seven other parliamentarians. Six of them defected from the HHK faction shortly after Pashinian swept to power in May in wave of mass protests that toppled the country’s former government headed by Serzh Sarkisian. The latter remains the HHK’s chairman.
The HHK, which now controls 50 of the 105 seats in the parliament, is opposed to holding the elections in December. It says that they should be delayed until May or June so that political forces have enough time to properly prepare for them and enact anti-fraud amendments to the Electoral Code.
Under the Armenian constitution, the parliament can be dissolved only if it fails to elect, within two weeks, another prime minister in case of Pashinian’s resignation. Pashinian has pledged to tender his resignation this month.
The HHK’s parliamentary leaders have so far declined to clarify whether they will respond by nominating or endorsing a prime-ministerial candidate. The effective defections of more HHK lawmakers dealt a further blow to the party’s ability to scuttle Pashinian’s plans.
The 43-year-old premier on Monday secured the crucial backing of businessman Gagik Tsarukian’s Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK) which holds 31 parliament seats. In a joint memorandum, Tsarukian and Pashinian said the fresh elections must be held in December.
As recently as on October 2, the BHK helped the HHK to enact a bill that could have complicated the conduct of the vote. Pashinian reacted furiously to the move, telling his supporters to rally outside the parliament building in Yerevan and firing government ministers representing Tsarukian’s party.
Pashinian, who controls only a handful of seats in the current legislature, stepped up his push for snap general polls after his My Step alliance won as much as 80 percent of the vote in the September 23 municipal elections in Yerevan. Observers believe that his political team could do just as well if the polls are held in the coming weeks. By contrast, the HHK would most probably struggle to win any seats in the next National Assembly.
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