By Anna Vardanyan for Caucasus Watch

The Armenian parliament is in the active process of liquidation after the formal resignation of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on October 16.

The first phase of dissolving the parliament was launched on October 24, when at the plenary session the Yelq (Exit) bloc, acting on behalf of the constitutional demands, formally nominated Nikol Pashinyan as PM, and the parliament did not vote in favor of his candidacy. The RPA and the ARF factions have announced that they will not participate in the voting. "Yelq" has announced they abstain from voting. As a result, no MP voted for his respective candidacy, eleven lawmakers voted against it, and one legislator abstained, thus Pashinyan was not elected in the first stage.

Let us remind that under the constitutional requirements the parliamentary factions may nominate PM candidates within seven days after the Prime Minister’s resignation. And on the eighth day, an election for a new PM shall take place at a parliament special session. The “Yelq” Faction had nominated acting PM Nikol Pashinyan to this office, whereas, the RPA, ARF Dashnaktsutyun and Tsarukyan Group have not nominated a candidate. Although the “Yelq” presented Pashinyan's candidacy, it urged all MPs not to vote for him so that the parliament can be dissolved a week later - on October 31, when a PM is not elected yet again. In case of such a scenario, a snap parliamentary election will be held in the first half of December. But if the Parliament elects Pashinyan Prime Minister, the NA dissolution will come off of the agenda, or at least will be put off, which, however, is almost unimaginable in such a situation.

Meanwhile, on October 29, at the initiative of the 35 deputies, the National Assembly will convene a special session during which the draft amendments to the Electoral Code will be submitted to a vote again, which had failed yesterday. The initiative did not collect the necessary votes. This was not only due to the RPA, but also because of the absent deputies from PAP and ARF, who spoke in favor of the adoption of the Code.

The Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) is aimed to vote it down for the second time as well.

And if the authorities decide to gather people next to the parliament again, it will bring up the issue of legitimacy of the elections, especially since there is no consensus required by the Venice Commission on the Electoral Code. Only 7 votes are missing to pass a new Code, which we believe, is possible to secure at the session that is to be convened on Monday.  Nevertheless, this does not solve the problem of political consensus.