The National Assembly (NA) on Thursday continues its debates on electing the new President of Armenia.

After the discussions on this matter Wednesday, a voting took place, the results of which will be announced at the beginning of today's sitting.

The only presidential candidate is Vahagn Khachaturyan—the serving Minister of High-Tech Industry of Armenia and the former mayor of the capital Yerevan—who is nominated by the ruling majority "Civil Contract" Faction of the NA.

The two opposition factions in parliament have not nominated a presidential candidate and announced that they will not partake in the NA election of the new President.

According to the Armenian Constitution, at least two-thirds of the total number of votes of the MPs, or 81 votes in favor, are needed to elect the new President of Armenia in the first round—but the NA ruling majority faction has only 71 seats. In the second round, however, the President is elected by three-fifths of the lawmakers—in this case, by 65 votes in favor—, and therefore the votes of the majority faction legislators should be enough this time.

The matter of electing a new member of the Central Bank is also on the NA agenda. The respective candidate is Levon Sahakyan, who also is nominated by the “Civil Contract” Faction, and is an adviser to NA speaker—and acting President—Alen Simonyan.