Tuesday,
Republican Lawmakers Side With Armenian PM
ARMENIA -- Supporters of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian protest outside the
parliament building in Yerevan, October 3, 2018
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.
Armenia - Deputies from the Republican Party of Armenia attend a parliament
session in Yerevan, 22 May 2018.
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.
U.S. Hopes For Democratic Elections In Armenia
Armenia - U.S. Ambassador Richard Mills (R) gifts a book to Armenian Prime
Minister Nikol Pashinian, Yerevan, 8 October 2018.
The United States hopes that the widely anticipated snap parliamentary
elections in Armenia will be free and fair, the outgoing U.S. ambassador in
Yerevan, Richard Mills, said on Tuesday.
“The date for elections is a matter for political parties, the government and
the Armenian people to come to a decision,” Mills told a news conference.
“What the U.S. government and, I think, all the friends of Armenia want to see
out of these elections is a free, fair and credible process that gives all
parties … a chance to fairly participate, and a process that will have
credibility with the Armenian people and produce solid multi-party democracy
that has a loyal opposition as well as a ruling majority,” he said.
Mills, who had a farewell meeting with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian on
Monday, added that he is “very encouraged” by his election-related discussions
with Armenian government officials and politicians. He praised their “spirit of
sitting down and reaching a compromise on what’s the best way to move forward
on elections.”
The current Armenian parliament has been widely expected to be dissolved ever
since Pashinian-led mass protests brought down this spring the country’s
previous government headed by Serzh Sarkisian.
U.S. President Donald Trump praised those protests when he congratulated
Pashinian on Armenia’s Independence Day marked on September 21.
“A peaceful, popular movement ushered in a new era in Armenia, and we look
forward to working with you to help you execute the will of your people to
combat corruption and to establish representative, accountable governance, rule
of law buttressed by an independent judiciary, and political and economic
competition,” Trump wrote in a congratulatory message.
The U.S. Embassy in Yerevan gave a largely positive assessment of the conduct
of Armenia’s last parliamentary elections held in April 2017. It said “voters
were able to freely exercise their right to vote.”
An April 2017 statement by the embassy backed the findings of an OSCE-led
monitoring team which said that the elections were “tainted by credible
information about vote-buying” and pressure on voters. But it also said that
electronic anti-fraud equipment installed in the Armenian polling stations
helped to prevent more serious irregularities.
Sarkisian’s Party Decries ‘Government Pressure’
• Astghik Bedevian
Armenia - Armen Ashotian, a deputy chairman of Republican Party of Armenia.
A senior member of former President Serzh Sarkisian’s Republican Party (HHK) on
Tuesday accused the authorities of forcing some of its deputies to agree to the
early dissolution of Armenia’s current parliament.
“According to my information, pressure was exerted on and the state repressive
apparatus was used against a number of deputies,” claimed Armen Ashotian. “They
even tried to find ways of influencing some deputies from abroad.”
“But I don’t exclude that there are also [HHK] deputies who willingly changed
their positions,” he told RFE/RL’s Armenian service (Azatutyun.am).
At least ten HHK lawmakers have openly voiced support for Prime Minister Nikol
Pashinian’s efforts to force snap parliamentary elections in December. The HHK
leadership says that the vote must not be held before May.
Ashotian argued that none of the HHK dissenters voiced objections when the
former ruling party’s parliamentary faction issued last week a statement that
argued against holding the elections in December. He said at least some of them
subsequently voiced support for Pashinian’s plans as a result of government
pressure and intimidation.
Ashotian refused to name any of those lawmakers, however. “Let those people
themselves talk about that pressure,” he said. “It is evident that such
pressure first occurred when some deputies left our 58-member faction [in June]
and we became a 50-member faction.”
Hrachya Hakobian, a lawmaker representing Pashinian’s Yelk alliance, dismissed
Ashotian’s allegations. He challenged the HHK representative to present
evidence of his claims to law-enforcement authorities.
“It looks like Mr. Ashotian is confusing the current situation with the
situation that existed during their rule,” said Hakobian.
Pashinian on Monday praised HHK parliamentarians for breaking ranks. He said
they should be “encouraged” by his supporters.
Meanwhile, the HHK faction issued another statement on Tuesday saying that it
will not nominate a candidate for the post of prime minister if Pashinian
resigns to pave the way for the December elections. But it said it continues to
believe that the polls must be held in May or June next year.
Press Review
“Zhoghovurd” is confident that fresh parliamentary elections will be held in
Armenia before the end of this year. The paper says that Serzh Sarkisian’s
Republican Party (HHK) is “falling apart,” with several members of its
parliamentary faction openly saying that the elections should be held in
December. It points out that the current parliament’s dissolution is now also
supported by Gagik Tsarukian’s Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK). “It must also be
noted that political processes seem to be unfolding without shocks,” it says.
Lragir.am notes that former Prosecutor-General Gevorg Kostanian is one of those
HHK parliamentarians who have effectively sided with Prime Minister Nikol
Pashinian. Another HHK lawmaker, Alik Sargsian, has expressed readiness to
leave the HHK’s parliamentary faction. The online publication notes that these
developments followed the weekend arrest of Samvel Mayrapetian, a wealthy
entrepreneur reputedly linked to former President Robert Kocharian. “The
[former] system is crumbling and any attempted resistance only accelerates the
depletion of its resources,” it says.
“Zhamanak” comments on a joint memorandum of understanding that was signed by
Pashinian and BHK leader Gagik Tsarukian on Monday. “In terms of current
political affairs, Gagik Tsarukian tried to save the chance to be second [most
important political force,]” writes the paper. “The question, however, is
whether by voicing support for Pashinian and agreeing to holding elections in
December he managed to reverse the losses suffered by the BHK on October 2. It
is possible that the BHK leader does not care about that and is now more
concerned with his personal rating seeing as the BHK’s ‘political period’
probably ended a long time ago.”
(Lilit Harutiunian)
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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