Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian does not have to amend Armenia’s constitution in order to force early general elections, a close associate of former President Levon Ter-Petrosian said on Friday.
Under the constitution, such elections can be held only if the prime minister resigns and the parliament fails to elect another premier within two weeks. Former President Serzh Sarkisian’s Republican Party (HHK) still has the largest faction in the National Assembly.
Speaking at an August 17 rally in Yerevan, Pashinian warned of the possibility of the HHK and other parliamentary forces installing another prime minister in case of his resignation. He said his political team will therefore draft constitutional amendments that would allow the parliament to dissolve itself.
Pashinian said a few days later, however, that such changes are only “one of the scenarios” considered by his government. It is still not clear whether he will push for them.
Levon Zurabian, the deputy chairman of Ter-Petrosian’s Armenian National Congress (HAK), warned that constitutional reform would be a rather lengthy and difficult process. “Constitutional changes need to be drafted, brought to the parliament and debated,” he told RFE/RL’s Armenian service. “There could also be problems with the Venice Commission [of the Council of Europe] which could pass judgment on that.”
Zurabian insisted that the existing constitutional mechanism for the parliament’s dissolution is more workable. He said he believes that the parliamentary majority would hardly dare to pick a new prime minister in case of Pashinian’s tactical resignation.