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Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (23 October 2018)

The Yelk political alliance in the Armenian parliament has nominated acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian for the post of prime minister.

The move came hours before a deadline for parliamentary factions to nominate their candidates expires later on October 23.

The other factions in parliament have said they will not nominate candidates.

Lawmakers are scheduled to hold the first round of voting for the prime minister's election on October 24.

Pashinian announced on October 16 that he was resigning from the post of prime minister in order to dissolve parliament and force early elections.

Under the Armenian Constitution, snap elections can be called only if the prime minister resigns and the parliament fails to replace him or her with someone else within two weeks.

New elections then shall be held no earlier than within 30 days and no later than within 45 days – approximately in the first half of December.

Pashinian has pushed for early parliamentary elections following his bloc's landslide victory in the mayoral race in the capital, Yerevan, last month in a bid to unseat his political opponents, who have maintained a majority in parliament.

A former opposition lawmaker, Pashinian took office in May after spearheading weeks of protests that forced his predecessor, Serzh Sarkisian of the Republican Party of Armenia (HKK), to resign.

https://www.rferl.org/a/armenian-yelk-alliance-nominates-pashinian-as-prime-minister/29559423.html