After Armen Sargsyan's Resignation, Authorities Are Indecisive on Presidential Candidate

After President Armen Sargsyan's resignation, members of the authorities are in disarray, unsure of whom to propose as a presidential candidate. The ruling "Civil Contract" party had long desired to have its own president and to eliminate Sargsyan, but they did not anticipate that appointing a new president would become a significant challenge for them.

According to sources from the "Zhoghovurd" newspaper, both the ruling Civil Contract party and the parliamentary majority are currently awaiting upcoming meetings, which Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan is expected to attend. The newspaper learned that the government’s delayed off-site meeting in Dilijan will likely take place at the end of this week. It is during this time that attendees will discuss, or more accurately, learn who the Civil Contract’s candidate will be.

The crux of the matter is that Pashinyan will personally select and present the candidate to his colleagues, and it is unlikely that party members will object to or debate the choice of candidate. Although the authorities have considered several potential names for the presidential candidate, which the media have also reported on, it is still possible that at the last moment, Pashinyan may decide to "bar" someone from his own team from the presidency.

Furthermore, during a press conference, Nikol Pashinyan commented on his vision of the role of the president. He emphasized that the new president must work harmoniously with the government and the parliamentary majority of the "Civil Contract," recalling that Armen Sargsyan did not sign his decree on the dismissal of the Chief of Staff when Onik Gasparyan called for the Prime Minister's resignation.

“Due to the lack of this harmony, we have faced very serious challenges, the depth of which we might not have even realized at that moment. In particular, in the context of the Chief of Staff’s well-known statement last year, this was not an issue of the authorities, nor of the government, nor of the executive power; my assessment is that we were on the brink of losing statehood at that time,” Pashinyan stated.