Pashinyan's party victorious but weakened after Sunday's elections in Yerevan

Voters in Armenia's capital Yerevan went to the polls on Sunday to elect a new city council and Mayor. The vote was seen as a test of the popularity of the current prime minister Nikol Pashinyan, and his Civic Contract party, particularly as they move towards signing a peace treaty with Azerbaijan.

Pashinyan's party emerged victorious since it gained the most votes, but the vote has been less than decisive. In fact a coalition will be required for a majority to be established in the city council following elections that were also marked by a low turnout. The Armenian Central Electoral Commission (CEC) said that as of closing of polls at 8 p.m. on Sunday, turnout was 28.5 percent, representing 234,553 voters out of 824,250 eligible.

Civil Contract's mayoral candidate in Yerevan elections is current Deputy Mayor Tigran Avinian, who served as Armenia’s deputy prime minister in 2018-2021. Hayk Marutian, a former Pashinian ally who served as Yerevan mayor from 2018 to 2021 when he was relieved of his duties by a vote of no confidence passed by the Civil Contract-dominated Council of Elders emerged in second place.

The CEC on Monday completed the electronic counting of votes. The results of all 475 polling stations have been summarized, according to which, based on preliminary data, 5 political forces are entering the Yerevan Council of Elders: Pashinyan's Civic Contract, "National Progress" (Hayk Marutian), "Mother Armenia" an alliance  that has the support of former president Robert Kocharian, "Republic", a political force seen as sympathetic to Pashinyan, and "Public Voice".

According to preliminary data, the mandates of the Yerevan Council of Elders are distributed as follows:

CP – 24 mandates

"National Progress" - 14 mandates

"Mother Armenia" bloc - 12 mandates

"Republic". - 8 mandates

 "Public Voice" - 7 mandates

Since none of the political forces have more than half of the seats in the Council a coalition is going to be necessary. The mandates of CP and the "Republic" party together make up 32 mandates, one less than required. 

According to the data published by the CEC, the votes were distributed as follows.

1. "Public Voice" party received 22,431 votes or 9.68%
2. "Civil Agreement" party: 75,463 votes or 32.57%)
3. "Fair Armenia" party: 2,595 votes or 1.12%)
4. "Haghtanak" party: 3,959 votes or 1.71%)
5. "Strength of the native" party: 1,706 votes or 0.74%)
6. "European Party of Armenia" - 2,572 votes or 1.11%)
7. "National Progress" party: 43,765 votes or 18.89%)
8. "For social justice" party: 780 votes or 0.34%)
9. "Republic" party: 26,236 votes or 11.32%)
10. "United Armenia" party: 1,282 votes or 0.55%)
11. Bright Armenia party: 4,174 votes or 1.8%)
12. "Democratic Consolidation" party: 2,348 votes or 1.01%)
13. "Land of Living" party: 8,425 votes or 3.64%)
14. "Mother Armenia" alliance: 35,739 votes or 15.43%)

The total number of those who participated in the election was 234,436.

source: commonspace.eu with agencies

photo: Armenian prime minister Nikol Pashinyan arrives at a polling station in Yerevan on Suinday (17 September) to vote in the elections for the Mayor and City Council (picture courtesy of the press service of the government of Armenia).