The current Armenian constitution stipulates that the prime minister has to be backed by a clear majority of parliament deputies. It envisages a second round of voting in cases where up to three parties or blocs fail to form a majority government following parliamentary elections.
Daniel Ioannisian, a civic activist sitting on the Constitutional Reform Council, proposed recently that the ad hoc body draft a separate amendment abolishing this provision regarded by him as undemocratic. Ioannisian and his Union of Informed Citizens want it to be enacted by the current National Assembly before the next elections due in 2026.
Most other members of the council headed by Justice Minister Grigor Minasian rejected the proposal on Thursday. In a statement, the Armenian Ministry of Justice said that while they think the new constitution must not have a clause on the “stable majority” they are against removing this requirement from the current constitution now. The Armenian government plans to hold a referendum on the new constitution in 2027.
Ioannisian criticized the council’s decision. In a Facebook post, he said it means that Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s Civil Contract party fears that it will not garner a majority of votes in the next elections and therefore hopes to cling to power in 2026 with “artificial” bonus votes enabled by the existing constitutional clause. He suggested that the number of parliament seats controlled by it is more important for Civil Contract that “the parliament’s legitimacy.”
The council mostly consisting of senior state officials had itself advocated the scrapping of the “stable majority” rule in a reform “concept” submitted to Pashinian in January. The document envisaged the possibility of a minority government in Armenia.