Armenia’s ruling Civil Contract party has been struggling to find a candidate for the position of justice minister since the ex-minister was forced to resign. The parliamentary speaker has suggested that they need to reconsider their requirement that the candidate be a party member.

On Wednesday, parliamentary speaker Alen Simonyan told journalists that 80% of the candidates stated they were satisfied with their current position and were reluctant to be considered for justice minister. Simonyan also cast blame on his own party for failing to find a new candidate.

‘We are discussing all the candidates, regardless of whether that candidate has given their consent or not. Nevertheless, we are providing them with the opportunity to speak,’ said Simonyan.

At the same time, Simonyan conceded that Civil Contract should reconsider their requirement for the candidate to be a party member.

‘I think we should also reconsider this and give an opportunity to present a candidate who is not a member of the Civil Contract party at the moment or at all,’ adding that they already have a ‘good’ precedent of selecting candidates from outside the party.

Simonyan noted all candidates presented their vision to the party. He assured that after another round of failing to select a candidate, the party already has new nominations and assured that they will have a proper candidate ‘in the near future’.

Simonyan implied that one of the problems with the appointment process is that candidates are too often reshuffled, or appointed to one position before quickly being asked to fill another. 

Armenia’s ex-Justice Minister Grigor Minasyan resigned on 1 October after the ruling party demanded his dismissal in a scandal relating to the appointment of a deputy who appeared in a 2019 photo with former President Robert Kocharyan’s daughter, holding a copy of Kocharyan’s autobiography.

Some members of the ruling party also pointed at Minasyan’s family ties to justify his resignation. The former minister’s brother, Mikayel Minasyan, is the son-in-law of Armenia’s former President Serzh Sargsyan and is wanted on several criminal charges, including the illegal acquisition of property.

Sargsyan and Kocharyan are the main political opponents of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, and have been facing several criminal charges after Pashinyan came to power in 2018. 

According to RFE/RL, since Minasyan’s resignation, eight candidates have been nominated, but they either removed themselves from the running or were rejected by the party’s governing body during subsequent sessions. Among the failed candidates was Pashinyan's spokesperson Nazeli Baghdasaryan, who withdrew herself. 

The article also announced that one of the new candidates is the Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs, Arpine Sargsyan.