Former President Serzh Sarkisian and senior members of his Republican Party of Armenia (HHK) have discussed fresh parliamentary elections sought by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian.
Sarkisian chaired late on Thursday a meeting of the HHK’s governing board for the first time in weeks. A board member, Galust Sahakian, confirmed that the possible holding of the elections was on its agenda. But he said no final decision was made at the meeting.
“There were some discussions [on the issue] but there is no decision that I can now communicate,” Sahakian told reporters shortly after the meeting.
“We did not arrive at any conclusion because Pashinian has not yet come up with any official proposal,” Eduard Sharmazanov, the HHK spokesman, said on Friday. “He is not in Armenia. When he returns to Armenia we will have to see the format and substance of discussions proposed by him.”
“We too have many proposals. So let’s sit down and discuss them,” Sharmazanov told RFE/RL’s Armenian service (Azatutyun.am).
Citing his bloc’s landslide victory in the September 23 mayoral election in Yerevan, Pashinian said on Monday that snap legislative polls must held in Armenia “very soon.” He said that the current Armenian parliament “does not have a [popular] mandate to operate.”
Visiting the United States, the premier added that on his return to Yerevan he will meet with representatives of major political forces to discuss time frames for the early elections. Sharmazanov said in this regard that the HHK is ready for “negotiations but not ultimatums and threats.”
The Armenian government’s policy program approved by lawmakers in June says that such a vote must be held by June 2019.
Several senior HHK figures have spoken out against the dissolution of the current National Assembly in which their party has the largest faction. But the former ruling party has still not formulated an official position the issue. In Sharmazanov’s words, it is open to discussing “pre-term but not urgent” elections.
Under the Armenian constitution, the parliament can be dissolved only if the prime minister resigns and lawmakers twice fail to choose his or her replacement.
Sharmazanov insisted that the National Assembly’s dissolution does not quite depend on the HHK, arguing that his party now controls less than half of the 105 parliament seats. “Pashinian and his supporters have 53 seats,” he said. “Let him resign or dissolve [the parliament] if he wants to. What do you want from us?”