Armenian protest leader Nikol Pashinyan rallies for support to become prime minister

Armenian opposition leader Nikol Pashinyan (C) poses with his supporters during a rally in Gyumri on April 27, 2018. (Photo by AFP)

Armenian protest leader Nikol Pashinyan has toured different parts of the country to garner support for his bid to become prime minister amid an ongoing dispute over the country's next leader.

Pashinyan, who heads the Civil Contract party, drove with his supporters around different parts of Armenia in a convoy on Saturday.  

Several hundred locals greeted Pashinyan in the small northern town of Dilijan, holding flags and beating drums.

The protest leader has also called for anti-government demonstrations in his birthplace Ijevan and Armenia's third largest city of Vanadzor.

Parliament is scheduled to elect a new prime minister on May 1. Armenian politicians have spoken of holding a snap parliamentary election once a new interim premier is in place.

Pashinyan, 42, has played a key role in leading tens of thousands of people during two weeks of non-stop rallies that forced Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan to resign on Monday.

The protest movement has accused Sargsyan’s ruling Republican Party -- which has a majority of seats in parliament -- of clinging to power.

Pashinyan has issued an ultimatum to authorities, urging that he should be elected new prime minister in the May 1 vote. He, however, does not have enough votes to get elected.

He says parliament should either elect him as premier or no other candidate would be elected at all.

The opposition leader has expressed hope that the Prosperous Armenia, one of the most influential parties at the Armenian political arena, and a smaller opposition party, the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, "will make up their minds and clarify their position."

The Prosperous Armenia Party, which has 31 seats in the 105-member parliament, is expected to announce whether it would support Pashinyan.

Meanwhile, the Republican Party said on Saturday it would not put forward any candidate for prime minister to avoid stoking tensions in the South Caucasus country. 

Eduard Sharmazanov, a spokesman for the party, said it would not put forward any candidate to become prime minister, but would vote as a bloc and unanimously after considering other candidates.

On Friday, Armenia's acting prime minister Karen Karapetyan rejected talks with Pashinyan, saying the protest leader had one-sidedly dictated the agenda of negotiations.

In response, Pashinyan said he would continue to call for anti-government protests and probably boycott any snap parliamentary election unless parliament made him the interim prime minister next week.

The opposition insists that only its candidate should become the country's leader so that it can oversee free and fair parliamentary elections and counter the country’s systematic corruption and the influence of oligarchs.