Until New Election, Acting President Will Be Alen Simonyan

The Speaker of the Armenian Parliament, Alen Simonyan, on Tuesday morning, after the seven-day deadline, signed the resignation application of President Armen Sarkissian, which he had submitted on January 23. The corresponding document was published on Tuesday on the website of the country's legislative body, reports 24news.

“Based on the application for the resignation of the President of the Republic and guided by Article 142 of the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia and the requirements of Article 147, part 1 and point 2 of the Constitutional Law on the Rules of Procedure of the National Assembly, I consider the powers of the President of the Republic, Armen Sarkissian, to be terminated,” states Alen Simonyan's announcement.

It should be noted that the duties of the country's president will temporarily be taken over by the Speaker of the National Assembly, Alen Simonyan, while he will be replaced by the Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly, Hakob Arshakyan, as the latter received the most votes during his election to the position. The name of the opposition's presidential candidate is still unknown; there is speculation that the opposition may not nominate a candidate.

It is recalled that on Sunday, the online version of the newspaper “Haykakan Zhamanak,” owned by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's family, reported that the ruling “Civil Contract” party has decided to nominate the Minister of High-Tech Industry and former Mayor of Yerevan, Vahagn Khachaturyan, for the presidency. He was appointed as the Minister of High-Tech Industry in August 2021. He is an economist by education.

According to the country’s constitution, until a new president is elected, the duties will be performed by the Speaker of the Parliament. New elections must be held no earlier than 25 and no later than 35 days after the acceptance of the resignation of the Republic's leader. Since Armenia is a parliamentary country, the president is elected by the parliament for a term of seven years.