April 14, 2018 - 15:31 AMT
Armenia ruling party to officially nominate ex-president for PM

The ruling Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) announced on Saturday, April 14 that they have decided to nominate former president Serzh Sargsyan for the post of the prime minister of the country.

At an RPA Executive council session, top party officials agreed to nominate current acting premier Karen Karapetyan for the position of the first deputy prime minister.

The official nomination of the candidates will be made at a parliament sitting on Monday, April 16.

Armenia is going through the final stage of making a shift from a semi-presidential system of government to a parliamentary one following a transition process that lasted about two years.

Former ambassador to the United Kingdom Armen Sarkissian was sworn in as the country’s fourth president on April 9, while the parliament is set to elect a new prime minister on April 17. Sarkissian who briefly held the prime minister’s post back in the 1990s, is a physicist and formerly a professor at the University of Cambridge, famous for his broad connections in the international scientific and business circles and close ties with the British Royal Family. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, he worked for such major international organizations as BP and Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Sarkissian’s new role has largely ceremonial functions and no real power as the actual power will be given to the prime minister.