President Does Not Comment on Legitimacy of Pashinyan's Tenure After Resignation

The President of the Republic does not have the authority to provide an official interpretation of the Constitution. This was stated to NEWS.am by the presidential administration in response to a question regarding whether the Prime Minister retains the right to hold office after submitting his resignation.

NEWS.am referred to Article 123, Part 2 of the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia, which stipulates that the President ensures compliance with the Constitution. The inquiry also included whether Nikol Pashinyan’s performance of Prime Minister duties after his resignation is inconsistent with the Constitution of Armenia.

In response, the presidential administration reminded that “the President of the Republic performs his functions through the powers defined by the Constitution,” while also noting that the Constitutional Court established in its decision No. SDO-1518 on March 31, 2020, that accepting the resignation of the government (under Article 130 of the Constitution) is one of the mandatory powers of the President of the Republic.

It should be recalled that on April 25, Nikol Pashinyan submitted his resignation and announced the holding of extraordinary elections. Pashinyan also stated that during this period, he would continue to perform the duties of the Prime Minister in full compliance with the law and the Constitution.

The question of Pashinyan continuing as acting Prime Minister has sparked serious debates within society, particularly among the legal community. Some lawyers argue that under the Constitution and the current legislation, Nikol Pashinyan does not qualify as the acting Prime Minister and that, by doing so, he has effectively seized power, rendering all decisions signed by him during this period null and void, and his orders are not subject to execution by the executive bodies of the Armenian government.

Meanwhile, representatives of the authorities are confident that the process complies with the Constitution. Even the first President of Armenia, Levon Ter-Petrosyan, has expressed concerns regarding the legality of the Prime Minister's tenure and the legitimacy of the upcoming elections. He urged parliamentary forces who reached an agreement with Pashinyan, the President of Armenia, and judges of the Constitutional Court to take seriously the arguments presented in Edgar Ghazaryan's article titled “According to the Constitution, the Prime Minister does not have the right to hold office after resignation,” and its subsequent publications.

“If these arguments are disregarded, all the mentioned entities will be held responsible for the conduct of the upcoming unconstitutional elections,” emphasized the first president. The former official of the Constitutional Court stated in his article that according to the Constitution, the Prime Minister does not have the right to hold office after resigning. According to Ghazaryan, during this entire period, Nikol Pashinyan should be dismissed and revert to the status of an ordinary citizen of Armenia.