YEREVAN, May 2 (Xinhua) -- Head of parliamentary faction of Republican Party of Armenia, Vahram Baghdasaryan announced on Wednesday that they would once again not put forth a candidate for the second round of the parliament voting for the new prime minister, reported Armenpress.
Baghdasaryan also noted that their party will vote for the candidate proposed by one-third of the members of Parliament.
The National Assembly turned down the bid of opposition MP Nikol Pashinyan on Tuesday to become prime minister of the ex-Soviet republic. Pashinyan had received 45 votes with 56 against his candidacy. He had to get at least 53 votes to become a PM from a 105-seats Parliament.
Following the unsuccessful outcome, a new voting will be organized by the parliement on May 8. During this period new candidates can be proposed only by one-third of the members of parliament. If the second attempt also yields no winner, that means the parliament will be dissolved and snap parliamentary elections should be organized.
From early morning till 5:00 p.m., the whole republic experienced acts of civil disobedience and strikes. Later in the evening during the rally on Wednesday Nikol Pashinyan announced that they would cease the acts of civil disobedience on Thursday.
Before the rally, Pashinyan had a meeting with Gagik Tsarukyan, who has the second major faction in the Parliament. Tsarukyan assured that they would again support Nikol's candidacy during the second vote.
On April 23, prime minister of Armenia and leader of the ruling Republican Party, Serzh Sargsyan stepped down amid mass protests that have gripped the ex-Soviet republic. Following a referendum held in December of 2015, Armenia has effectively shifted from a semi-presidential system of governance to a parliamentary one where the prime minister's office holds most of the executive power in the country, with the president's job now being largely ceremonial.
Nikol Pashinyan, an opposition MP who is the leader of the protests that ousted former Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan, has insisted that the political parties in the parliament should vote him in as the next interim PM before new snap elections.
