“I BELIEVE that one person must not aspire to the reins of power more than twice in a lifetime,” Serzh Sargsyan, then president of Armenia, declared in 2014. But the unpopular Mr Sargsyan, whose second (and final) consecutive term as president expired on April 9th, was just kidding. On April 17th the national assembly, stacked with loyalists, elected him as the country’s new prime minister. Even many members of the biggest “opposition” group voted for him. If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, Vladimir Putin must be smiling.
Around 10,000 protesters in Yerevan, the capital, took to the streets before the vote, chanting “Reject Serzh!” Police used tear-gas to disperse them. With hindsight Mr Sargsyan’s intentions have long been clear. Constitutional changes he enacted in December 2015, which take effect this month, grant the prime minister nearly all the powers previously held by the president. The amendments also scrapped direct elections for the presidency, ensuring that this post too is occupied by one of Mr Sargsyan’s yes-men.
Mr Sargsyan insists that a parliamentary system will strengthen democracy. Many Armenians are unconvinced. Hovsep Khurshudyan of the Armenian Centre for National and International Studies, a think-tank, calls the change “groundless”. The new, convoluted electoral system almost guarantees Mr...Continue reading
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