Armenia parliament set to elect new prime minister on second tryMay 8, 2018 - 10:19 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - The Armenian parliament is set to elect a new prime minister on Tuesday, May 8 after weeks of political standoff, a civil campaign against the ruling authorities and massive protests in Yerevan and across the country. The movement was in full swing throughout the republic for several weeks and got even stronger after the National Assembly failed to elect opposition leader Nikol Pashinyan as the country's new prime minister on May 1. The founder and head of Civil Contract party and lawmaker from the Yelk bloc, Pashinyan leads the street campaign, which has seen hundreds of thousands of Armenians taking to the streets in massive protests in the past several weeks. Former prime minister Serzh Sargsyan was forced to resign on April 23, and Pashinyan is now seeking the appointment as prime minister by the National Assembly of what he calls “the people’s candidate”, - i.e. himself - the formation of an interim government and snap parliamentary elections. Pashinyan has promised to rid Armenia of corruption and poverty and is still the only candidate running for the PM's post. Demonstrations have been halted since May 3 after the ruling Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) pledged to support Pashinyan’s candidacy. Yelk and Tsarukyan blocs, as well the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun) have pledged to support Pashinyan’s bid, while the RPA will “allocate the necessary number of votes, so that Armenia has a new prime minister on Tuesday.” Top stories President of the Armenian parliament Alen Simonyan met with the Speaker of the Azerbaijani Milli Majlis Sahiba Gafarova. Achieving stable peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan remains a priority of the OSCE, said Ian Borg. The Cabinet of Ministers decided on Thursday, November 9 to allocated AMD 120 million to arrange the gathering. Michael Roth believes sanctions must be put on the table after Baku‘s ethnic cleansing in Nagorno-Karabakh. Partner news | Lemkin Institute petition seeks release of Armenians in Azerbaijan The Lemkin Institute is deeply concerned about the continued illegal detention of political prisoners from Karabakh in Azerbaijan. Armenian Catholicos calls for national unity against threats Karekin II issued a message on Republic Day marking the anniversary of the First Armenian Republic. Opposition leader, supporters spend night at Sardarapat memorial Police made nearly 300 arrests the day before as Galstanyan and his supporters continued to demonstrate in Yerevan. Armenia designates flood-hit communities as disaster areas The emergency situation was created by floods caused by heavy rains in Armenia’s north on May 25-26. |