YEREVAN. – Zhoghovurd newspaper of the Republic of Armenia (RA) writes: The National Assembly [(NA)] will elect the RA President at the regular session to be convened from March 1.

According to Zhoghovurd daily’s information from sources close to the [ruling majority] “Civil Contract” [(CC)] Faction [of the NA], the authorities intends to hold the election in the period from March 3 to March 5; it is not ruled out—on March 3 exactly.

(…) the authorities do not have enough votes to pass [their] presidential candidate Vahagn Khachaturyan in the first round, and [therefore] they have turned to the [parliamentary] opposition for help. However, their intention did not succeed, and, in fact, they already realized that the president would not be elected in the first round. According to the RA Constitution, at least three quarters of the total number of votes of the MPs—or 81 votes in favor—are required, whereas the majority [faction in the NA] has only 71 seats. The presidential candidate will not be elected without 10 votes of the opposition.

The legislator stipulates that already in the second round, the president is elected by three-fifths—in this case, by 64 votes—, and [therefore] the votes of the CC MPs are enough.

Moreover, according to the Zhoghovurd daily’s information, the inauguration ceremony of the RA President is planned to be held on March 14-15, and this assumes that they need to organize the second attempt quickly; that is, the 2nd round will be immediately after the failed RA presidential election attempt, the election of the president is intended to be completed in the period March 3-5.