Tigran Mukuchian, the current CEC chairman who has been in office since 2011, will complete his tenure in October. His successor will soon be elected by the Armenian parliament controlled by Civil Contract. The parliament’s factions have until July 25 to formally nominate their candidates for the post.
The Yerevan daily Zhoghovurd reported on Wednesday that Pashinian’s party will nominate one of its senior lawmakers, Vahagn Hovakimian. It has enough parliament seats to appoint him as the new head of the body administering Armenia’s general and local elections and releasing their results.
Hovakimian did not confirm or refute the report when he spoke to RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
“Everything will be clear when the parliamentary group [of Civil Contract] makes a decision,” he said, adding that the parliamentary majority “has not yet nominated any candidate.”
Hovakimian, 48, is a former journalist who worked for Pashinian’s Haykakan Zhamanak daily from 1998 to 2012. Pashinian hired him as a parliamentary assistant after being first elected to the National Assembly in 2012.
Hovakimian became a parliament deputy in 2019. He has since co-sponsored major bills which critics say are aimed at helping Pashinian tighten his hold on power.
In particular, Hovakimian was one of the authors of controversial 2020 constitutional changes that led to the dismissal of Constitutional Court judges at loggerheads with the Armenian government. Opposition lawmakers charged at the time that the parliament approved the changes in breach of legal procedures for amending the constitution. Hovakimian and other Pashinian allies denied breaking the law.
Mukuchian, the outgoing CEC chairman, had been installed by former President Serzh Sarkisian’s administration. He retained his post after the 2018 mass protests that toppled Sarkisian and brought Pashinian to power. Pashinian had for years accused the former Armenian authorities of rigging elections.