The Bishop Decides to Be the Prime Minister Candidate: A Two-Step Solution

As promised, Bishop Bagrat has been holding meetings with political forces. He announced yesterday that he has met with representatives from "Hayakve" and "Living Land" as well as Suren Surenyants and other groups. The meetings took place in central Yerevan at the "Yerevan Place" hotel.

The Bishop has informed party officials that after considerable contemplation, it has been determined that he should be the Prime Minister candidate himself, as any other candidate carries the risk of failure for the movement. This was reported by the newspaper "Hraparak."

The purpose of his meetings is to gather public support from the political arena, which would also call on the National Assembly to change the constitutional provision that prohibits dual citizens from running for the Prime Minister of Armenia. Since Bishop Bagrat has been the head of the Canadian Diocese for a long time, he has been granted Canadian citizenship by the Canadian authorities.

We have been told that all forces have agreed and withdrawn their candidacies from discussion. It remains to be seen whether this can be practically achieved. Specifically, the constitutional provision can be changed right in the parliament, as the ruling Civil Contract party did in 2020 to seize the Constitutional Court. But will the current parliamentary majority take this step today? Changing the constitutional norm requires a two-thirds majority of votes from MPs.

This means that the issue will be solved not in one step, but in two: first, a constitutional amendment, and then the Bishop's election in the National Assembly. It should be noted that the active members of the "Tavush for the Fatherland" movement, Garnik Danielyan, Arthur Sarkisyan, and Suren Petrosyan, also participated in these meetings with the Bishop.