Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian announced the decision after a meeting of the party’s governing board chaired by him.

“As a result of a discussion and a secret ballot, Ruben Rubinian was elected as our candidate for the speaker of the National Assembly,” he told journalists.

“I am flattered by the vote result and the [party’s] trust is very binding for me,” Rubinian said for his part.

The speaker of the outgoing parliament, Alen Simonian, hoped to retain his post after the elections. Rubinian challenged him for the job along with Civil Contract’s parliamentary leader, Hayk Konjorian. Pashinian did not say whether he initiated or backed the choice of the new speaker.

A longtime Pashinian ally, Simonian was dogged by controversy throughout his five-year tenure. In particular, he infamously ordered his bodyguards to catch and overpower a heckler in Yerevan before spitting at the man’s face in 2023. A year later, Simonian publicly insulted a Nagorno-Karabakh activist who berated him and other top state officials during an official ceremony.

Last November, Simonian branded two pro-opposition podcaster as “sons of a b*tch” when he commented on their seven-hour interview with former President Serzh Sarkisian broadcast live on YouTube. The podcasters responded to him with offensive language before being arrested on hooliganism charges.

In addition to being one of Simonian’s two deputies since 2021, Rubinian has also represented Armenia in normalization talks with neighboring Turkey. Like Simonian, he has repeatedly attacked and insulted opposition lawmakers on the parliament floor. The 36-year-old declared in February that the Armenian authorities will not allow the opposition to win the forthcoming elections.

The main opposition groups have rejected as fraudulent the official election results giving victory to Pashinian’s party. Only two of them won seats in the new parliament, according to those results. They have yet to decide whether to take up their seats.

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