Armenia leader pushes judicial reform ahead of key referendum

YEREVAN — Armenia's reformist Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on Thursday embarked on a country-wide tour to campaign for a key judicial reform ahead of a referendum next month.

On April 5, Armenians will vote in a referendum on suspending the powers of seven out of nine constitutional court judges whom Pashinyan has accused of political bias.

The seven judges were appointed under Pashinyan's predecessor Serzh Sarkisian ousted from power in 2018.

"We need an independent judiciary as oxygen. The current constitutional court is a time bomb laid under the foundation of our democracy," he told a rally in the town of Goris in southern Armenia.

"The constitutional court continues to serve the interests of former corrupt officials."

Pashinyan was elected prime minister in the wake of mass popular protests he spearheaded two years ago against veteran leader Sarkisian and his Republican Party.

In 2018, Sarkisian sought to cling to power by switching to the newly-empowered role of prime minister after his second and last term as president ended.

The move was widely seen as a power grab and proved the last straw for the landlocked south Caucasus nation of 2.9 million people, long frustrated with the country's sluggish economy, poverty and corruption.

Sarkisian resigned under pressure and last month went on trial on corruption charges.

In May 2018, Pashinyan was elected prime minister and has since led a relentless crusade against graft and initiated sweeping judicial reforms.

In December 2018, his Civil Contract Party won a landslide victory in snap parliamentary elections.