Pashinyan Holds Final Rally Ahead of Tuesday Prime Minister Elections

Nikol Pashinyan and his team today held their final rally in the Republic Square before the Tuesday prime minister elections at the National Assembly.

“Yelk faction this morning officially nominated my candidacy for the PM post. The nomination deadline expired at 6pm, and it turned out that there were no other candidates. Three out of the four National Assembly factions have stated that they would support my candidacy, that is, they will vote for the people’s candidate. The Republican majority, in turn, have announced that they would not do anything to obstruct the elections. It is therefore likely that tomorrow your candidate might be elected as the Prime Minister Armenia,” Pashinyan told his thousands of supporters.

The oppositionist added that it was “completely unimportant” who would be Prime Minister; what’s important, according to Pashinyan, was that the recent uprising showed that “the Armenian people have taken the situation in their hands and reclaimed the power in their country.”

“These people showed that they know what to do if any authorities in Armenia become impudent and decide not to reckon with their people. I realized tonight that the people of Armenia have irreversibly won,” Pashinyan said, calling for cessation of protest actions and demonstrations.

“Armenian citizens have to celebrate their victory, and therefore I urge you all to gather in the Republic Square at 11am tomorrow and celebrate your own victory over desperation, emigration, weakness, uncertainty”

Yelk faction MP Ararat Mirzoyan, in turn, spoke about their further plans after Pashinyan’s election as PM: “We have to create an interim government. What can we expect or demand from this government?

“This interim government will have four main function: to ensure the widest possible political solidarity; to promptly solve the most significant and pressing, primarily economic issues in the country; to create mechanisms for reforming the electoral system. The electoral code has to be amended, and the whole system itself has to undergo purely functional, operational reforms; finally and most importantly, the main mission of the interim government is to organize early parliamentary elections.

“I ask and demand that you don’t leave us alone in this process. Please, stand by us in this process; we need you. Be more careful, more sincere, more organized… They will try to take away our victory.”