Armenian parliament elects Armen Sargsyan as president

Armenia has new president. According to outcomes of the voting on March 2, the National Assembly has elected the only candidate Armen Sargsyan as the new president. He was nominated by the ruling coalition.

90 MPs voted for him, 10 were against.

As EADaily reported earlier, Armen Sargsyan, 65, is former Armenia’s ambassador to the United Kingdom; in 1996-97 he was the country’s prime minister.

Sargsyan was proposed by the ruling Republican Party and the Dashnaktsutyun Armenian Revolutionary Federation. 65 MPs supported the nomination. The Tsarukyan opposition party which is second largest in the parliament announced that it would support the candidate nominated by the ruling party. Another opposition party, Yelq (nine MPs), said it would not support the candidate.

A candidate needs at least 79 from 105 votes to become president.

The term of the current president, Serzh Sargsyan, is to end on April 9. After that Armenia will switch to the parliamentary republic, the prime minister becomes the key figure in the country, while the president will be fulfilling symbolic functions.