After eight hours of debate, members of Armenian parliament yesterday voted down opposition leader Nikol Pashinyan's bid to become prime minister.
The vote against Pashinyan, who was the only candidate, came after demonstrations that drew as many as 100,000 mostly young people into the streets of the capital, Yerevan, and forced Serzh Sargsyan to resign as prime minister, a post he took after spending a decade as president.
The parliament voted 55 to 45 against making Pashinyan prime minister. By law, a new parliamentary vote will take place May 8. Acting Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan, a close ally of Sargsyan’s and a former executive at the Russian gas giant Gazprom, will stay in place.
Pashinyan responded to the vote by calling on citizens across the country to join a general strike beginning at 8:15 a.m. on May 2 and strengthen his negotiating position on opposition demands that he be appointed as the next prime minister.
Speaking to tens of thousands of supporters gathered at Republic Square in central Yerevan after the legislature's vote, Pashinian said all workers should stop going to their jobs and all students should stop attending their classes beginning on May 2.
He also called for protesters to continue "nonviolent, peaceful acts of civil disobedience" — including the blocking of all roads and highways in the country and the closure of railroads and airports.
If parliament on May 8 fails again to confirm a prime minister, the legislature would automatically be dissolved and early general elections would be scheduled with the Republican-led acting government in charge of the electoral process.
Russian media reports say several hundreds of students blocked the central streets in Armenia’s capital of Yerevan and also the highways connecting the city with the airport. Police are on alert but have not so far interfered in the protests, according to TASS.
Western media reports say Pashinyan’s movement gave democracy a rare boost in the former Soviet republic, allowing Armenia to shake off — at least, temporarily — authoritarian rule.
The Washington Post says that while Pashinyan has insisted his movement, which is directed against the ruling elite’s widespread corruption and nepotism, is free from geopolitics, he was accused by the ruling party on Tuesday of supporting “anti-Russian activism.”
