Ahead of the OSCE press conference just coming up, we have received this comment from Alexander Petrosyan from his base in Brussels:
"According to the Central Electoral Commission, Pashinyan's Civil Contract has gained around 54% of the votes, while Kocharyan's 'Armenia Alliance' gets 21%. Given the fact that the law allows the third party/bloc, which has gained the most votes, to enter the Parliament, 'I have honor' of Vanetsyan and Sargsyan, manages to secure its place. Overall, the elections faced many frauds and violations, with the involvement of both parties. It seems that Pashinyan's party has adopted the same traits of election falsification as his old opponents: administrative and media resources, abuse of power."
Russian officials have positively spoken out about the results of the parliamentary elections.
The Kremlin's presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov, congratulated the Armenian people on their choice, referring to the information released by the Central Election Commission of Armenia. The Russian leadership expects that the Armenian republic will be able to enter the trajectory of sustainable development and cope with difficulties, peskov Peskov said.
Additionally, the first deputy chairman of the international affairs committee of the Federation Council, Vladimir Jabbarov, reminded that “Russia is Armenia’s strategic partner”, as well as a “reliable and loyal friend, the closest friend to Armenia”.
Like Jabarov, Russian MP Viktor Vodolatsky wants to avoid provoking people to the streets and clashes. He advises the parties which lost the elections to sit around a table to negotiate for the benefit of Armenia.
The head of the Armenian Central Electoral Commission, Tigran Mukuchyan, has confirmed the results of the 20 June 2021 parliamentary elections, meaning that Armenia’s caretaker prime minister and leader of the Civil Contract party, Nikol Pashinyan, has secured enough votes (53.92%) to form a government:
"We have now published the data, or what percentage from the total of the votes each party got. We then later use another plan to determine who will get how many mandates."
In Armenian electoral law, there must be a third political force in parliament; however, only two political entities managed to pass the 5% (parties) or 7% (blocs) threshold to enter. Mukuchyan has now explained who will gain seats in the parliament as the third electoral force:
"The third force making it to parliament is the one that received more votes [than others but did not clear the threshold]."
The third place will thus go to the I Have Honor alliance.
Benjamin Poghosyan, a regular contributor to commonspace.eu, has sent us this update from Yerevan:
"In the regional context, Pashinyan's victory means Armenia will continue implementing all written and oral agreements reached with Russia and Azerbaijan after the end of the 2020 Karabakh war. These developments align with Russian strategic interests in the region as they will allow unhindered implementation of Russia–Turkey agreements for the future regional balance of power in the South Caucasus. Most probably, communications will be opened between Armenia and Azerbaijan. President Aliyev will talk about the launch of corridors, while the prime minister, Pashinyan, will speak about highways and railways, but this war of terms will not change the essence. Armenia and Azerbaijan will be transformed into the trade and transportation hubs for Russia to reach Turkey and Iran."
Read his full comments here.
#ArmVote21 #ArmVote2021
— Husik (@HusikGhulyan) June 21, 2021
Preliminary results of voter turnout (%) per settlements pic.twitter.com/fOLsAtKH1J
With the results out, Dr Vasif Huseynov – a Senior Advisor at the Center of Analysis of International Relations (AIR Center) – gives commonspace.eu some insight on people's thoughts in Baku:
"The results of Armenia's snap parliamentary elections were a surprise for most observers in the region, including Azerbaijanis. As opposed to the expectations, the elections took place in a peaceful environment and ended with a landslide victory of the ruling party led by Nikol Pashinyan and the loss of revanchist political groups. This outcome has been interpreted by Azerbaijanis as the approval of the post-war peace and reconciliation efforts between Armenia and Azerbaijan by the Armenian people. Along with that, the emerging chance for the establishment of a stable political environment in Armenia is another factor which is seen by Azerbaijanis as conducive to regional peace and stability. This all has caused some optimism concerning the future of the region."
Election observers of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) have praised the conduct of the electoral process in Armenia.
Ilkhom Nematov, the head of the CIS observation mission, said the mission visited about 700 polling stations in Yerevan and regions on election day (20 June). He has confirmed that the mission considers the early elections of the Armenian National Assembly to have been held in accordance with the Armenian Constitution and Electoral Code, and were open and constructive.
Another member of the observer mission, Kanybek Imanaliev, noted that one drawback was that in some polling stations, there was not a single observer from any of the 25 political forces participating in the elections.
photo: Ilkhom Nematov, head of the CIS observation mission in Armenia
The Armenia Alliance bloc led by former president Robert Kocharyan issued a statement disputing the results of the elections stating that they are “highly controversial and do not inspire confidence”.
The statement says:
“The results are in conflict with various manifestations of public life that we have witnessed over the past eight months, with the results of public opinion polls, including the ones conducted by international organizations and finally, with simple common sense. The large campaign rallies of the opposition, the small number of people attending the gatherings organized by the ruling power and the crisis of confidence signaled a completely different mood in the country. One of the most serious reasons for the lack of confidence/trust were the hundreds of calls coming from different polling stations on election day about the systemic, pre-planned falsification of election results.
"Considering the above-mentioned, the Armenia Alliance prioritizes the in-depth and substantiated investigation into all of the registered and alleged violations, which they will start doing immediately. As long as all the problematic issues have not received comprehensive explanations and the suspicions have not been dispelled, the Armenia Alliance will not accept the election results.”
The Armenia Alliance said that it would wait until all electoral violations are investigated.
