The National Assembly of Armenia elected opposition leader Nikol Pashinyan as Prime Minister.
Pashinyan’s candidacy was supported by 59 deputies, 42 people voted against. 101 out of 105 deputies were present at the voting. There were enough votes due to the fact that Pashinyan was supported by 11 members of the former ruling party of Armenia, the Republican Party (RPA).
The vote was not easy for Republicans. According to Armenian media, the day before at a faction meeting, a deputy from the RPA faction, former Prosecutor General Gevork Kostanyan, the former mayor of Yerevan and the ex-head of the Ministry of Transport Gagik Beglaryan got into a fight. Allegedly, Beglaryan tried to issue instructions on how to vote, and this outraged his fellow party members.
Now Pashinyan must present candidates for government positions to Armenian President Armen Sarkissian within 15 days. Pashinyan said that he does not rule out cooperation with opponents from the Republican Party, but the Republicans are going into opposition.
“The leader of popular protests and the idol of the street becomes the power. Not a metaphorical power, like “the people’s delegate” or “the people’s prime minister,” but the constitutional head of the Cabinet. The new opposition, which just a day ago was at least de jure in power, will not go away. So far it has lost the battle, suffered a painful defeat, but is by no means defeated. And it would be a big mistake to stage a confrontation with them, hiding behind the opinion of the people,” comments political scientist Sergei Markedonov.
Thousands of people were still standing on the main square of Yerevan in the morning.
The new Armenian prime minister has already been congratulated by Russian President Vladimir Putin. Pashinyan himself said that he expects to meet with Putin on May 14 at the EAEU summit in Sochi.
“We look forward to preserving and strengthening our relations, to continuing the course towards strategic partnership, as well as to developing interaction within the EAEU and CSTO,” wrote Leonid Slutsky, Chairman of the State Duma Committee on International Politics, in his telegram channel.