Armenia’s ruling party on Saturday refused to nominate a new candidate for premier after veteran ruler Serzh Sarkisian stepped down following mass protests, as support for leading opposition figure Nikol Pashinyan gathered pace.
Ex-Soviet Armenia has been in the grip of a severe political crisis for the past two weeks with the protest movement charging that Sarkisian and his ruling Republican party were making a power grab.
“The Republican Party has decided not to nominate its candidate,” said Eduard Sharmazanov, vice speaker of parliament and the ruling party’s spokesman, citing the interests of the people.
The party will wait until all candidates are nominated by April 30 and then decide who to back.
It was not immediately clear whether the ruling party — which has a majority of seats in parliament — would back the head of the protest movement, Nikol Pashinyan, or another candidate.
Sharmazanov said earlier he personally doubted Pashinyan was a suitable candidate for the top job.
The ruling party said earlier it would announce its position on a May 1 vote to elect the country’s next prime minister on Monday.
The Prosperous Armenia Party, which holds 31 seats in the 105-member chamber, said Saturday it was backing Pashinyan.
The party “won’t present a candidate and will support the candidate of the people, which is what he (Pashinyan) is,” its chief Gagik Tsarukyan told the Kentron television channel.
