Forty days after his victory in Armenia’s snap parliamentary elections, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian said Thursday that he has still not made a final decision on the structure of his new cabinet and will therefore not appoint all of its members for now.
Pashinian was formally reappointed by President Armen Sarkissian as prime minister on Monday. Under the Armenian constitution, he has to name members of his cabinet and ask Sarkisian to appoint them within the next five days.
The premier will then have 20 days to submit the government’s five-year policy program to the new Armenian parliament. The program’s approval by the National Assembly will amount to a vote of confidence.
“By law, the government is deemed formed when two-thirds of its members are appointed,” Pashinian said at a meeting of his outgoing cabinet. “We will follow that path: two-thirds of the government members will be appointed while the others will not be appointed until we ascertain every detail of the changes in the government’s structure.”
“One thing is clear: the number of ministries will be reduced. We just need to manage this process without shocks and in a maximally smooth and predictable way,” he added.
A government bill circulated last month calls for reducing the number of ministries from 17 to 12. It would close the Ministry of Diaspora and merge four other ministries with different agencies. It is not yet clear how many civil servants would be laid off as a result.
The bill sparked street protests in December by hundreds of Diaspora and culture ministry employees fearing a loss of their jobs. They denounced it as hasty and ill-thought-out. Government officials responded that the authorities may still revise the proposed changes.
Pashinian last week reaffirmed his pre-election pledges to downsize the government.
The controversial bill would also abolish the post of first deputy prime minister held by Ararat Mirzoyan, a close Pashinian associate, until he was elected parliament speaker on Monday.
Pashinian’s two other deputies, Mher Grigorian and Tigran Avinian, were formally reappointed late on Wednesday.
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