Epress.am News from Armenia
Negotiations between Nikol Pashinyan and parliamentary fractions are urgent. They will indicate the mechanisms and dates of holding snap parliamentary elections. This was recently conveyed to “Armenian Times” newspaper by Lena Nazaryan, head of the Yelq fraction at the National Assembly. She did not exclude that the snap elections may be held by the end of this year. She mentioned that there are two options for reaching the decision for snap elections.
“There is the short path and the long path. The dates of the elections will depend on the choice of either of these options. The short path is the resignation of the Prime Minister, and if the Parliament fails to elect a Prime Minister after two attempts, the Parliament will dissolve. The second path is that the Parliament makes changes in the Constitution and dissolution of parliament takes place without the resignation of the Prime Minister. These procedures are quite long and it is possible that a referendum be required,” said Lena Nazaryan.
The Civil Contract party, however, prefers the short path to reach snap parliamentary elections. At the same time, there are fears that the Republican Party will impede and will make it impossible to dissolve the parliament by force of law. “We would not prefer the path of constitutional changes. I think the other political forces would not prefer it either, with the exception of the Republican Party, which strives to delay snap elections. Vahram Baghdasaryan of the Republicans says that we are doing important work here at the National Assembly, however I don’t understand what exactly he refers to,” mentions Lena Nazaryan in her conversation with ‘Armenian Times’ newspaper.
Lena Nazaryan has also stated that the resistance of the Republican fraction at the parliament will create extra antagonism against them within the society. In fact, they’re doing their best to make people’s attitude toward them completely negative. To the newspaper’s question whether it would be possible for Civil Contract to make certain compromises to the option of Prime Minister resignation and non-election of one for two times, Lena Nazaryan denied such a possibility. According to the head of the Yelq fraction, no political force’s interest will prevail.
“If all of this is unimportant, then what are the interests of these parties? Is their purpose to receive ministerial posts, or to meet the expectations of people? If fair and unbiased elections take place, the Republicans will participate and will receive as many votes as will be cast for them. I wonder why they persist and make the situation even more tense under the current circumstances when corruption cases roar and many officials are under investigation. None of them has so far stated a regret that during their rule, such practices were in place.”
Speaking of the mechanisms of reaching dissolution of the 6th National Assembly, Lena Nazaryan did not rule out the possibility of using street resistance. “This will be the most undesired path, but I do not exclude it, although Nikol Pashinyan has always been willing to negotiate. The street action is the last resort. If negotiations fail, I don’t exclude that people will take the streets again. This is not desirable as it impedes the normal flow of events,” said Lena Nazaryan.
In the meanwhile, changes to the Electoral Code are being drafted. The Republican party hopes that the Government will base their position on the perspective of the Venice Committee that only 1 year after the Electoral Code is amended elections should be held. In other words, in order to dissolve the National Assembly by force of law, 1 year would be required, with the republicans ruling the Parliament in the meantime. Lena Nazaryan mentioned that the Venice Committee understands the need to bypass this recommendation. “The representatives of the government have explained the situation in the country to the Venice Committee. Here, we have an understanding that we are in an unusual situation and we need to adopt electoral amendments as soon as possible.”
Daniel Ioanissyan, secretary of the Electoral Code Reform Committee under the Prime Minister told ‘Armenian Times’ that the draft of the Electoral Code will be ready in two weeks. “The recommendation of the Venice Committee that elections should be held 12 months after the new Code is adopted, will not be implemented this time. The reasons are clear. As for the substantive part of the amendments, we will turn to the Venice Committee to receive their recommendations on the content of the new Code, and we will consider incorporating their recommendations,” said Ioanissyan.