The official results of the parliamentary elections in Armenia have been announced. Although the elections ended with the victory of the “Civil Contract” Party led by Nikol Pashinyan, the ruling party collected the lowest results since coming to power.
Modern.az reminds that the ruling party secured an ordinary majority by winning 61 out of 105 seats in parliament. This means that Pashinyan will be able to be re-elected as Prime Minister alone, form the Cabinet of Ministers, and adopt daily current laws by a majority vote.
However, the main problem and political crisis officially begin here for him. For the first time during his term in parliament, Pashinyan lost his absolute hegemony — the “constitutional majority” regime. According to the Armenian constitution, there are strategic decisions and posts in the governance of the state that cannot be adopted or appointed by a simple majority vote. This requires a two-thirds (2/3) or three-fifths (3/5) majority in parliament.
If we take the 105 deputy seats in the Armenian National Assembly as a basis, according to the mathematical ratio, this amounts to 63 deputy posts. Pashinyan's party, however, has only 61 mandates. This means that the ruling force will always lack at least 2 deputy votes for absolute decisions. This forces Pashinyan to enter into a direct compromise, negotiations with the opposition (with the wing of Karapetyan, Kocharyan, or Tsarukyan) in the parliamentary corridors, or to secretly transfer deputies from them.
According to the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia, the positions that Pashinyan cannot appoint alone (3/5 requirement) are:
Prosecutor General
Chairman and members of the Central Electoral Commission (CEC)
Judges of the Constitutional Court
Human Rights Defender (Ombudsman) –
Chairman of the Central Bank
Members of the Television and Radio Council
Chairman and members of the Audit Chamber
