Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and his allies looked set to gain a two-thirds majority in Armenia’s new parliament as they cruised to victory in snap general elections held on Sunday.
According to the preliminary election results released by the Central Election Commission (CEC) early on Monday, Pashinian’s My Step alliance won over 70 percent of the vote.
The strong performance highlighted Pashinian’s continuing popularity more than seven months after mass protests led by the 43-year-old former journalist toppled the country’s longtime leader, Serzh Sarkisian. The protests were sparked by Sarkisian’s attempt to extend his decade-long rule.
Businessman Gagik Tsarukian’s Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK) finished a distant second with 8.4 percent of the vote. It was followed by the pro-Western Bright Armenia Party, which got 6.4 percent.
Sarkisian’s Republican Party of Armenia (HHK) and the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun) apparently failed to clear a 5 percent legal vote threshold for being represented in the National Assembly. They got 4.6 percent and 3.9 percent of the vote respectively, according to the CEC.
The HHK, which won the last parliamentary elections held as recently as in April 2017, did not immediately say whether it recognizes the percentage of votes attributed to it.
The six other contenders fared even worse .
Pashinian declared his victory in the elections shortly after midnight. “It is obvious that we will have an absolute majority in new parliament, which will allow us to implement our reform agenda,” he told a news conference held at the My Step headquarters in Yerevan. “There is no doubt that our alliance … enjoys the trust of the Armenian people.”
Under Armenian law, no single party or bloc can control more than two-thirds of the parliament seats. Such a comfortable majority will be more than enough for Pashinian to retain his post and push government bills through the parliament.
Pashinian said his chief priority will be to bring about an “economic revolution” that would significantly reduce poverty, create many jobs and thus raise living standards in the country. He repeatedly made such pledges during the election campaign, saying that his government’s efforts to combat corruption and improve the business environment will improve the socioeconomic situation.
The CEC put voter turnout at 48.6 percent, down from about 61 percent reported in the last parliamentary elections held in April 2017.
The HHK seized upon this difference to downplay the scale of Pashinian’s victory. The former ruling party’s deputy chairman, Armen Ashotian, claimed that it reflects “popular apathy and disappointment” with Pashinian’s government.
“This proves that the holding of the pre-term parliamentary elections in December was not a ‘popular demand’ but the result of Nikol Pashinian’s personal political calculations and interests,” Ashotian wrote on Facebook.
Pashinian appealed to Armenians to turn out in larger numbers a few hours after the opening of the polls. In a live Facebook transmission, he also said that the turnout is lower than in 2017 mostly because voters are no longer bribed by the HHK.
At the late-night news conference, Pashinian also claimed that under the former HHK-led government the number of people participating in elections was routinely inflated as a result of fraud. Besides, he said, said some of his supporters did not bother to vote on Sunday because they were confident about My Step’s landslide victory.
Pashinian and the HHK traded bitter recriminations during the two-week election campaign. The premier accused Sarkisian’s party of corruption and misrule and said the snap polls must lead to its political demise.
For their part, HHK leaders accused Pashinian of endangering Armenia’s national security and failing to deliver on his promises of rule of law and economic betterment.
By contrast, Tsarukian’s BHK and Bright Armenia avoided strongly criticizing the government on the campaign trail.
Although the HHK continued to accuse the authorities of intimidating its activists and abusing administrative resources, election contenders, observers and media reported far fewer instances of serious fraud than they had in the past. In particular, there were virtually no reports of vote buying, which was widespread in the previous Armenian elections.
The Armenian police said they recorded 144 reports of various irregularities and will look into them.
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