Armenia opposition halts street campaign against Armenia ruling elite

Armenia opposition halts street campaign against Armenia ruling elite

PanARMENIAN.Net - Opposition leader Nikol Pashinyan halted demonstration and the strike across Armenia for Thursday, May 3 after tens of thousands of protesters paralysed traffic across the country on Wednesday.

Addressing a massive crowd gathered at the Republic Square in downtown Yerevan, Pashinyan said no activities will be held on Thursday.

Three parliamentary factions - Yelk and Tsarukyan blocs and the Armenian Revolutionary Federation - have agreed to nominate Pashinyan for the prime minister’s post, while the ruling Republican Party (RPA) has promised to support the candidate introduced by the one third of the parliament.

The campaign against the Armenian authorities was in full swing across Yerevan and the rest of the republic after the parliament failed to elect Pashinyan as the country's new prime minister on Tuesday.

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.

All the streets, as well as the metro, the road to the airport and the country’s railroad were currently blocked by groups of demonstrators by 5:00pm Wednesday.

A second vote will be held on May 8, 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 the street campaign against the ruling authorities, which has seen thousands of Armenians taking to the streets in massive protests in the past several weeks.

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.

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