Armenia: Nikol Pashinyan wins by polls Election news

Nikol Pashinyan, the acting prime minister of Armenia, has won the parliamentary elections he called in an effort to dispel the political crisis after the disastrous war with Azerbaijan.

Declaring 75% of the results, Pashinyan’s Civil Contract party garnered 55.61% of the vote on Monday. The electoral alliance of its main opponent, former President Robert Kocharyan, won 20% of the vote, according to the Central Election Commission (CEC).

Voter turnout was about 50 percent, with about 2.6 million people able to vote.

“The people of Armenia have given our Civil Contract party authority to lead the country and I personally have the country to be prime minister,” Pashinyan said early Monday.

“We already know that we won a credible victory in the elections and we will have a credible majority in parliament,” he added.

Kocharyan’s bloc, however, questioned the credibility of the first results and said it would not acknowledge Pashinyan’s quick claim, which is when 30 per cent of the constituencies were counted.

“Hundreds of signs at polling stations verifying planned and planned forgeries are a serious reason for the lack of confidence,” the bloc said in a statement, adding that it will not “accept” the results until it examines “violations”.

Earlier on Sunday evening, the attorney general said he had received 319 violations. He said he had opened six criminal trials, all of which were related to bribery during the campaign.

The elections are being monitored by experts from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and have recently been assessed as fair and free to vote. The general verdict will be handed down on Monday.

Pre-election polls put both sides on their necks. And while four election blocs and 21 party candidates ran in the election, a few are expected to get seats in parliament.

Six days of war

Pashinyan called for a speedy interrogation by ethnic army forces to try to end the political crisis that erupted last week after losing a six-week war against Azerbaijan and giving up territory in and around the Nagorno-Karabakh region. More than 6,500 people were killed in the war, according to the latest official figures from Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Pashinyan has been under pressure ever since, ending the conflict with ordinary street demands demanding the abandonment of the terms of the peace deal. According to the agreement reached by Russia, Azerbaijan regained control of the territory lost in the war in the early 1990s. Pashinyan himself called the agreement a disaster, but said he was forced to sign it to avoid further human and territorial losses.

From Moscow’s point of view, the Pashinyan agreement guarantees that it will continue. In this regard, the location of about 2,000 Russian peacekeepers is located in Nagorno-Karabakh.

Former adviser Arsen Kharatyan Pashinyan said the results of Al Jazeera had allowed the acting prime minister to form a government to “stop the internal political turmoil”.

“Now, how will you adapt to the situation in Armenia? In the bigger picture, the security architecture of the region has not changed much since the war. Russia will still be the main driver in all this. So whoever comes to power will have to play fairly directly with Moscow, “Kharatyan said, adding that in Sunday’s vote,” none of the parties that campaigned on the Western agenda got enough votes. “

Armenia, which has a Russian military base, is a close ally of Moscow, although Pashinyan, who came to power on the eve of street protests in 2018 and on the anti-corruption agenda, has had fresher relations with the Kremlin.

Turkey, which sided with Azerbaijan in last year’s conflict, will also watch the elections closely.

Conflicting opinions

On Sunday in the streets of Yerevan, Armenians expressed opposing views on Pashinyan.

Voter Anahit Sargsyan said the prime minister who led peaceful protests against corrupt elites in 2018 deserved another chance.

He said he feared the return of the old guard who had accused him of looting the town.

“I voted against going back to the old ways,” the 63-year-old former teacher said.

An Armenian woman voted at the polling station in the parliamentary elections (called after the defeat in the Nagorno-Karabakh struggle last year) on Sunday, June 20, 2021, in Yerevan, Armenia. [Sergei Grits/AP Photo]

Another voter, Vardan Hovhannisyan, said he had voted in favor of Kocharyan as he named Russian leader Vladimir Putin as his friend.

“I voted for safe borders, solidarity in society, the return of our prisoners of war, the well-being of the wounded and a strong army,” the 41-year-old musician said.

Kocharyan, who comes from Karabakh, has denounced Armenia’s leadership as inactive in last year’s war and has pledged to start negotiations on the Nagorno-Karabakh border if it gains power.

Kocharyan served as president of Armenia from 1998 to 2008, and was accused of acting illegally when he imposed a state of emergency in March 2008 after the disputed elections.

At least 10 people were killed in clashes between police and protesters.