Whose Candidate is Vahe Grigoryan? Fact

According to the "Fact" newspaper, significant developments are unfolding regarding the candidacy for a member of the Constitutional Court (CC). As is known, the President of Armenia has proposed Vahe Grigoryan's name for the position of CC judge for the second time, after the National Assembly, dominated by the Republican Party in 2018, rejected his candidacy once before. The discourse surrounding Grigoryan’s candidacy has largely been negative.

In this context, representatives of the government, led by the Prime Minister, have adopted quite an interesting tactic. They are advancing the thesis that Grigoryan is not their candidate, meaning that he is not the candidate of the "Civil Contract" or "My Step" parties, but rather the candidate of the President himself. This was practically openly stated by Nikol Pashinyan yesterday. This is interesting in the sense that it attempts to shift the focus from the serious disagreements that exist between the President and the Prime Minister.

On the other hand, this effort attempts to depoliticize and 'de-Civil Contract' the future Constitutional Court judge, even though it is evident that the authorities are quite interested in Grigoryan’s candidacy. This approach is reminiscent of the tactics used by previous administrations, where specific legislative changes were made for a particular individual or political interests, ensuring everything was done 'according to the letter of the law'. They often prolonged discussions until they achieved their desired outcome.

Notably, the recent statement by Andranik Kocharyan, a Member of the 'My Step' faction in the National Assembly, was particularly noteworthy. He stated that the type represented by Vahe Grigoryan should govern our judicial system. This may confirm our recent information that in upcoming 'episodes,' the authorities will try to exert pressure on Hrayr Tovmasyan to force him to resign, enabling Vahe Grigoryan to be 'installed' as the President of the CC. The authorities have already begun taking initial steps: yesterday, several individuals gathered in front of the CC demanding Tovmasyan's resignation.

For more details, refer to the newspaper's current issue.