The Latest on Armenia’s political crisis (all times local):
9:50 p.m.
Armenia’s protest leader has called on his supporters to suspend their anti-government protests Thursday, saying he has enough support to become prime minister and end the country’s political crisis.
Nikol Pashinian told a Wednesday evening rally that “tomorrow, we will work in parliament.” In a surprise move, the ruling party, which had a day earlier rejected Pashinian’s bid to become premier in a parliamentary vote, said that it would back any candidate for prime minister that was nominated by a third of the body’s 105 members.
Pashinian says all three opposition parties will nominate him to become prime minister, effectively meaning the job would be his if the ruling party honors its pledge.
Mass demonstrations forced Serzh Sargsyan to resign last week as prime minister just days after he was named to the post. Sargsyan was Armenia’s president for 10 years before stepping down because of term limits.
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8:30 p.m.
The opposition lawmaker who has spearheaded mass protests in Armenia says all three opposition parties in parliament will nominate him for prime minister, which would oblige the ruling party lawmakers to support him.
The head of the Republican Party’s faction in parliament said earlier Wednesday that the party didn’t plan to put forward its own candidate for the premiership and would support whichever candidate was nominated by one-third of the chamber’s deputies.
Protest leader Nikol Pashinian told an evening rally in Armenia’s capital, Yerevan, that three opposition parties — holding 47 of the parliament’s 105 seats — would nominate him for prime minister Thursday
Republican Party has a majority in parliament. Lawmakers voted 55-45 against putting Pashinian in office on Tuesday.
Another vote is scheduled for May 8.
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7:45 p.m.
A top official in Armenia’s ruling party says its members in parliament will vote for whichever candidate for prime minister gets nominated by one-third of lawmakers.
Vagram Bagdasarian, head of the Republican Party faction in the National Assembly of Armenia, also said Wednesday that the party would not put forward its own candidate.
The nomination threshold is a potentially significant concession to the opposition candidate who has spearheaded weeks of mass protests.
The Republicans hold a majority in parliament, so whomever it supports in the vote next Tuesday would win the premiership.
On Tuesday, the chamber rejected opposition lawmaker Nikol Pashinian’s candidacy on a 55-45 vote.
6 p.m.
Anti-government protesters in Armenia have carried a mock coffin and funeral flowers to symbolize what the opposition says is the death of the country’s ruling party.
Scores of people carried the coffin through Republic Square before smashing it to the ground and stomping on a white wraith of flowers.
The protest follows the parliament’s rejection of a bid by opposition leader Nikol Pashinian to become prime minister that has intensified the political turmoil that has gripped the country since mid-April.
Mass demonstrations forced Serzh Sargsyan to resign last week as prime minister just days after he was named to the post. Sargsyan was Armenia’s president for 10 years before stepping down because of term limits.
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3:30 p.m.
The opposition leader spearheading weeks of protest in Armenia is warning the government not to deploy troops and says the country’s political crisis can’t be solved by force.
Nikol Pashinian told The Associated Press on Wednesday that the ruling party effectively was suicidal for rejecting his bid to become prime minister in a parliamentary vote a day earlier.
He said the rejection of his bid to lead the country had only galvanized the opposition and that if the government brings troops to the capital to quell protests “all the soldiers will come to us and join us.”
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12:40 p.m.
Opposition protesters are blocking the road leading from Armenia’s capital, Yerevan, to its airport, as well as several subway stations and government ministries after their leader called for a national strike.
The actions Wednesday follow the parliament’s rejection of a bid by opposition leader Nikol Pashinian to become prime minister, and intensify the political turmoil that has gripped the country since mid-April.
Mass demonstrations forced Serzh Sargsyan to resign last week as prime minister just days after he was named to the post. Sargsyan was Armenia’s president for 10 years before stepping down due to term limits; he became prime minister amid a change in government structure that boosts the post’s powers, and opponents said the shift would allow him to remain the country’s leader indefinitely.
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