ARMENIA’S Republican Party has lost its parliamentary majority after MP Samvel Aleksanyan announced he was leaving their faction, paving the way for snap elections.

His departure means the former ruling party has 52 of the 105 seats in the Armenian parliament. He has not commented on his departure, which was confirmed by party spokesman Vahram Baghdasaryan.

Mr Aleksanyan is one of Armenia’s richest people and his resignation from the Republican Party faction comes just a week after a supermarket chain owned by his family was accused by the National Security Service of large-scale tax evasion.

He became the sixth MP to quit the Republican Party faction as it starts to lose its grip on power in the former Soviet country.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian swept to power after a month of mass protests forced the resignation of former president Serzh Sargsyan, who had engineered a move to the newly powerful post in what was deemed a power grab.

Mr Pashinian promised snap elections after he became prime minister, however, the Republican Party, which still held a parliamentary majority, did not budge out fears that it would hve been heavily defeated.

The Republicans are also losing control of Armenia’s governorates, which have been key in delivering its previous election victories. Mr Pashinian is set to appoint new governors in the country’s 10 regions from among his coalition partners.

Mr Pashinian moved to quell fears of a neoliberal “colour revolution” after coming to power, offering assurances that there would be no changes to international relations, with Armenia having close ties to Moscow.

But an EU report released yesterday claimed “significant progress” has been made in developing stronger EU-Armenia relations and expressed support for the new government.