ArmInfo.The ruling party has not yet made a final decision on a possible candidate for the presidency. This was announced on January 27 during a press conference by Chairman of the Standing Committee of the Parliament on Foreign Relations Eduard Aghajanyan.
In this context, he noted that at this stage, discussions are underway, during which different candidates are being considered. "Discussions will continue in due time until a final decision is made," said the head of the Standing Committee. When asked about the nomination of Arayik Harutyunyan as a candidate for the post of President of the country, Aghajanyan said that at the moment there is no such decision.
It should be noted that a day earlier, Agnes Khamoyan, Mp from the Armenia bloc, said that Robert Kocharyan's candidacy would not be nominated for the post of President of Armenia.
On January 23, Armenian President Armen Sarkissian resigned. According to Sarkissian, the reason for his resignation is the lack of appropriate tools for the President, including the ability to influence "issues related to war or peace". As stated in a statement published on the website of the head of state, Sarkissian thought it thoroughly and decided to resign from the position as president of the of the Republic of Armenia almost four years of active work " This step of mine is entirely non-emotional and comes from a certain logic," the President noted. Armen Sarkissian became the first President of the Republic of Armenia, elected not by popular vote, but according to the new Constitution, by the Armenian Parliament in April 2018 for a period of 7 years.
On January 24, NA Speaker Alen Simonyan announced that the President of the Republic of Armenia submitted his resignation in accordance with Article 142 of the Constitution, part 1 of Article 147 of the NA Rules of Procedure. "According to the Rules of Procedure of the National Assembly, if within a week after the resignation of the relevant official withdraws his resignation letter, the Chairman of the National Assembly makes a statement about it. And if he does not withdraw the resignation letter, then a protocol is drawn up on the termination of his powers, which is signed and published by the NA Speaker. The resignation is considered accepted from the moment the protocol is published," Simonyan said.
It should be noted that according to Article 125 of the country's Constitution, the president submits a petition for his resignation to the National Assembly. The resignation is considered accepted from the moment of its promulgation in the manner prescribed by law. Until the new head of state takes office, the Speaker of the parliament performs his duties.
According to Article 126 of the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia, extraordinary elections of the President of the Republic are held no earlier than twenty-five and no later than thirty-five days after the opening of a vacancy for the position of the President of the Republic in cases of dismissal, impossibility of exercising powers, resignation or death of the President of the Republic.