Armenia’s acting prime minister, Karen Karapetyan, on Wednesday suggested holding a new parliamentary election to end a political crisis which has gripped the country for almost two weeks.
Meanwhile police moved into the centre of the capital Yerevan as protesters gathered to demonstrate against the country’s ruling elite, witnesses said.
Nikol Pashinyan, the opposition leader who helped force Prime Minister Serzh Sarksyan to resign on Monday, said he was ready to be the country’s next premier and would keep up pressure on the elite until it agreed to real change.
Karapetyan, calling for a new election, said that if Pashinyan was the people’s choice, they could elect him.
The economy would face problems if the crisis continued, Karapetyan said.
Sarksyan, who previously served as Armenia’s president for a decade, resigned as prime minister on Monday after almost two weeks of street protests prompted by accusations he had manipulated the constitution to cling to power.