Acting ministers and governors representing the political team of acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian will run for parliament on so-called regional lists of candidates to be presented by the pro-government alliance ahead of the snap general elections in December, according to a senior member of Pashinian’s Civil Contract Party.
Lawmaker Lena Nazarian said that their list of candidates will include about 200 candidates and that “it will not disappoint the voters.”
According to the current electoral legislation, voters across Armenia will cast their ballots not only for political parties and alliances as a whole but also for their individual candidates running in a dozen nationwide constituencies.
It is in these individual races that acting ministers, governors and lawmakers representing the Civil Contract Party will participate, Nazarian said.
“The acting ministers who are members of the political team will by all means be included in the lists of candidates,” the lawmaker told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. “Later, of course, it will be decided who will enter the National Assembly and who will continue to work in the government.”
As for the list of candidates in general, Nazarian said: “There will be people who are not well known to the public, but who are well-known among their professional communities, people who are successful and who have participated in developing policies in given areas, people who are able and ready to develop a given area already at the National Assembly, at the legislative level.”
Nazarian acknowledged that with the preservation of the current electoral laws that the government twice failed to amend last month in some places there will be candidates who will campaign individually rather than as part of a political team. “Nevertheless, we will try to turn these ballots into the election of prime minister and our candidate for prime minister, participating in rallies in all provinces of Armenia, of course, will call on voters to support members of his political team. In this sense, I think the political component will grow and people will consider voting not only for people nominated in their constituencies, but also for the political team, for political representatives,” she said.
Nazarian also said that besides members of the Civil Contract Party the Pashinian alliance will also include representatives of the Arakelutyun Party who are part of the My Step Alliance, as well as two former non-partisan members of the ruling Republican Party’s parliamentary faction – Shirak Torosian and Felix Tsolakian. The latter was recently appointed minister of emergency situations.