Pashinyan’s resignation 'precluded' him from serving as deputy PM until snap elections - ex-minister of justice  

Nikol Pashinyan’s resignation back in April precluded any chances for him to serve in the status of an acting prime minister without his cabinet's formal resignation, a former minister of justice said today, citing numerous procedural violations.

Davit Harutyunyan, who represented I Have Honor bloc in last month’s snap parliamentary elections, insisted on the illegitimacy of the entire process at today’s hearing in the Constitutional Court hearing (challenging the results of the June 20 voting).

“That the prime minister’s move to hand in a resignation essentially differs from the entire government’s resignation is, to my mind, obvious indeed. Exactly the same model applies to other countries, where we can find numerous examples. Very few countries may still be pursuing the opposite model, i.e. – when the prime minister resigns but still continues performing his duties. The vast majority of countries adhere to that trend,” he added.

Harutyunyan later went on to elaborate on the situations necessitating the prime minister’s move to resign. “When, in the course of his tenure, the country suffers a colossal loss or a phenomenon testifying to that person’s inability to be the head of the executive, that person resigns. That is to say, the institute of submitting a resignation implies literally that ‘I resigned from this particular post’,” he said, adding that the acting prime minister’s status is not a value protected under the Constitution.

Harutyunyan cited three case scenarios regulated under Article 158 of the Constitution, which literally reads: “The Government shall submit its resignation to the President of the Republic on the day of the first session of newly-elected National Assembly, of not seeking confidence in the Government, not approving the Programme of the Government, the Prime Minister submitting a resignation or the office of the Prime Minister becoming vacant.

"The members of the Government shall continue performing their duties until a new Government is formed.”

“It is logical, in the case of all the three scenarios, for both the prime minister and the other ministers to continue fulfilling their official duties,” the former minister added.

Harutyunyan also affirmed their approach to defending not only political logic but also the principle of legitimacy.

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