There is a risk that due to the new Constitution, which they said is a perfect one, there may a constitutional crisis in the country soon. The problem consists in Article 55, Point 4, which says the following: “The president of the Republic shall appoint the prime minister within ten days after the dismissal of the government. The government shall be formed within twenty days after the prime minister’s appointment”. Meanwhile, Article 74 writes: “The government shall present its program to the parliament within twenty days after its formation. The parliament shall consider the program of the government through a special session, and the voting session shall take place within five days after the date of presentation. The decision of the National Assembly whether to approve the program of the government or not shall be made by a majority of votes”. To note, Serge Sargsyan was appointed prime minister on April 4, the government was formed on April 24, and according to the mentioned clauses in the Constitution, the government shall present its program to the parliament before May 14. However, it is mostly possible that this session of the parliament will not take place due to the fact that they are busy with the pre-election procedures. Accordingly, it turns out that Serge Sargsyan will have to resign on May 13 so that the time limit is figured from its starting point again, and the new parliament approves the program. However, the problem is that Serge Sargsyan’s resignation will not solve the problem either, as Article 55, Point 4 states: “After the president accepts the prime minister’s resignation, the members of the government shall continue carrying out their responsibilities until a new government is formed”. The problem is that the existing ministers are in charge of those responsibilities, since the parliament has not yet approved the program of the government. We wonder who is going to be in charge of those positions and responsibilities in that case. Will they be the former members? There aren’t any former members, as the existing government has not been approved by the National Assembly.
