According to the Constitution, Nikol Pashinyan is obliged to continue performing the duties of Prime Minister: Badasyan

The Acting Minister of Justice of Armenia, Rustam Badasyan, responded to questions from Armenpress regarding whether Nikol Pashinyan can be considered the acting Prime Minister following his resignation and whether there is a legal opportunity for a replacement.

Following the resignation of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, the discourse continues on whether he can remain in the position of acting Prime Minister. Is there a clear answer to this question? Of course, there is a clear answer, and this discourse is quite artificial. After resigning, the Prime Minister, like other members of the government, continues to perform his duties until a new government is formed. Specifically, according to Article 158 of the Constitution, the government submits its resignation to the President of the Republic also in the case where the Prime Minister resigns. That same article stipulates that government members continue to perform their duties until a new government is formed. Moreover, the composition of the government is defined in Article 147, which states that the government is composed of the Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Ministers, and Ministers.

Various parallels are drawn between the resignation of Serzh Sargsyan in 2018 and that of Nikol Pashinyan. Is there a difference between these two resignation processes? Let's see, on April 23, 2018, the government adopted a decision based on the relevant provisions of the Law on the Structure and Activity of the Government, and the statement made by Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan, which acknowledged the impossibility of his performing his duties. At that moment, in the case of the absence of the Acting Prime Minister and the impossibility of performing his duties, the procedure for replacing the Prime Minister was established by the government decision that stipulated that in the event of Serzh Sargsyan's impossibility to perform his duties, he was replaced by the First Deputy Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan. Thus, setting aside the grounds for impossibility, in this case, the applicability or non-applicability issue, the previous government's decision in April 2018 effectively established that the resignation of the Prime Minister does not preclude him from performing his duties, and an additional act is necessary for Karen Karapetyan to replace Serzh Sargsyan.

Furthermore, when on October 16, 2018, the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia, Nikol Pashinyan, submitted his resignation, he continued to perform his duties until the new government was formed in 2019. This means that not only do the aforementioned articles of the Constitution clearly regulate this issue, but there has never been any other interpretation regarding this matter.

Mr. Minister, let's imagine that after the resignation of the Prime Minister, he does not continue to perform his duties. Is there a legal opportunity for a Prime Minister's replacement in such a case? Thank you for the good question. Let's assume that after the Prime Minister's resignation, he should not continue to perform his duties until a new government is formed, then where is the procedure for his replacement? Such a procedure should be defined exclusively by the Constitution, because we are essentially talking about the component of constitutional security. As mentioned, the government decision outlines procedures for the replacement of the Prime Minister only in cases of the absence of the Prime Minister and his inability to perform his duties, none of which include the case of the resignation presented by the Prime Minister. And today I notice that some say that one Deputy Prime Minister should serve, while others say that another should, but not a single legal basis for this has been presented. Thus, those who insist that, due to the fact of the Prime Minister’s resignation, he cannot continue to perform his duties until a new government is formed, are essentially claiming that the Republic of Armenia should not have a head of executive authority until a new government is formed, and I believe we all understand the baselessness and, let me say, absurdity of such a claim.