Railroad in Armenia blocked amid massive protests

PanARMENIAN.Net - Traffic on the Armenian railway is blocked too as demonstrators have resumed a campaign demanding the resignation of the country’s ruling authorities.

According to press secretary of the South Caucasian Railway Vardan Aloyan, the railway from Yerevan to the Georgian border is closed at 14 crossings.

The Yerevan-Gyumri trains have stopped halfway, and there is no information about whether the road to the south of Armenia (Artashat and Ararat) is open.

Asked whether the evening train from Yerevan to Tbilisi will be able to depart, the SCR promised to provide additional information later.

The campaign against the Armenian authorities is in full swing across Yerevan and the rest of the Republic on Wednesday, May 2 after the parliament failed to elect opposition leader Nikol Pashinyan as the country's new prime minister.

Pashinyan, who has been leading the protests for several weeks now, needed more than half of all the votes - the support of 53 lawmakers - to secure the prime minister’s spot, but got only 45.

A second vote will be held a week later, and the candidate needs to collect at least one third of the votes to win.

The founder and head of Civil Contract party and lawmaker from the Yelk bloc, Pashinyan leads a street campaign against the ruling authorities, which has seen thousands of Armenians taking to the streets in massive protests.

Former prime minister Serzh Sargsyan was forced to resign on April 23, and Pashinyan is now seeking the appointment as prime minister by the National Assembly of what he calls “the people’s candidate”, - i.e. himself - the formation of an interim government and snap parliamentary elections.

Pashinyan has promised to rid Armenia of corruption and poverty.