YEREVAN, MAY 8, ARMENPRESS. After being elected Prime Minister of Armenia by the Parliament on May 8, Nikol Pashinyan departed for the Republic Square where the people gathered were waiting for him since morning, reports Aremnpress.
Pashinyan delivered remarks at the Republic Square.
“Today you won. From now on no one will ever dare to commit any encroachment against your victory. But I want to clearly state what is your victory. The victory is not that I have been elected Prime Minister of Armenia, the victory is that you have decided who will be the Prime Minister. It doesn’t matter who will be the Prime Minister, today and after that one subject has right to decide who will be in the leadership. That subject is the citizen of the Republic of Armenia”, PM Pashinyan said.
He stated that the public officials, be the president, the prime minister or the member of Parliament, are just services to the people.
“From now on the people must take care that all officials honestly serve the people, otherwise, they will take their step as they did in 2018. By assuming the post of the PM I announce that I serve the Armenian people, the citizens of Armenia, the Republic of Artsakh and the Republic of Armenia. Long live freedom, long live the Republic of Armenia, long live we and our children who already live in free and happy Armenia”, the PM said.
59 MPs voted in favor, 42 voted against.
The extraordinary sitting of the Armenian parliament kicked off 12:00 for the second round of vote to elect a Prime Minister. Nikol Pashinyan, the opposition leader who spearheaded the recent nationwide demonstrations, was the only candidate for the position, just like during the first round on May 1.
Two other factions in addition to Pashinyan’s Yelk have endorsed the opposition leader’s candidacy – the ARF and the Tsarukyan.
Pashinyan needed at least 53 votes in the 105-seat unicameral parliament to be named Prime Minister.
As required by the Constitution, a new government must be formed within 15 days after electing a Prime Minister.
An elected Prime Minister must nominate deputy Prime Ministers and ministers of his Cabinet to the President within five days after taking office. After the formation of the government, the Prime Minister must present his Cabinet’s action plan for parliamentary debates within 20 days. Lawmakers have seven days for debating the action plan.
In the event of the parliament’s rejection of the action plan, the elected PM resigns and new elections of PM take place. If a new Prime Minister is elected in the second elections and again the action plan isn’t approved, the parliament is dissolved and snap elections take place.