Democracy Watch – On February 12, at the congress of the newly established Strong Armenia party, it was announced that the political force’s candidate for prime minister would be Russian-Armenian businessman Samvel Karapetyan. The main issue with this decision is that, under the Constitution of Armenia, only individuals who have been solely citizens of the Republic of Armenia during the previous four years may be elected as members of parliament or appointed to the government.
Article 148 of the Constitution stipulates that a member of the government must meet the requirements set for a member of parliament. Any person may be elected to the National Assembly who is at least 25 years old, has been only an Armenian citizen for the last four years, has permanently resided in Armenia during that period, has voting rights, and is proficient in Armenian.
In addition to Armenian citizenship, Samvel Karapetyan also holds Russian and Cypriot citizenship.