Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan plans to switch to a semi-presidential form of government, through constitutional reforms, and rule for another ten years as president, political scientist Armen Badalyan told Armenian News-NEWS.am.

"It is possible to change power in Armenia, but for that an objective must set. If there is no such objective, the opposition naturally starts writing statuses on social media and secondly, you start playing by the rules of the game drawn by the prime minister. And the prime minister has drawn the clear line: he is creating a system of one-man-rule governance, he is taking the local self-government bodies under his control, he took the Yerevan Municipality under his control. That is, we can say that the administrative resource [in Armenia] is mainly under its control. The Commission on Constitutional Reform has become active, which will publish a text of the semi-presidential system of government. The prime minister is likely to hold a referendum and get the percentage he wants—being cut off from parliamentary oversight. He will be elected president for five years, then he will continue for another five years, and ten years later it is already difficult to say who will be what, will not be; he gets a ten-year guarantee. The prime minister is now working on that process," Badalyan said.

Asked whether Pashinyan will succeed in this process, the political scientist said that if the opposition does nothing, Pashinyan will succeed in fulfilling this prediction.

"Apart from a few speeches in the NA [(National Assembly)], I do not see anything from the opposition. A march to Yerablur [Military Pantheon] in September, and a rally near the SJC [(Supreme Judicial Council)], I have not seen anything else. A change of power is possible if the opposition thinks seriously about it. Otherwise, the current leader may hold office for ten years or more," said Armen Badalyan.