Preliminary official results of Armenia's parliamentary elections on Monday showed that the ruling Civic Contract party, led by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, won a new mandate after a fierce electoral battle with the opposition.
Pashinyan's party won 49.8 percent of the vote after the results were counted at all polling stations, a comfortable lead over the opposition "Strong Armenia" alliance led by Russian-Armenian businessman Samfil Karapetyan, which received 23.3 percent of the vote, amid a relatively high turnout of about 59 percent of voters.
A historic victory
Prime Minister Pashinyan declared victory early during a press conference after the partial results showed that his party was in a comfortable lead, calling the result a "historic victory" and reaffirming his full commitment to respecting the will of the voters regardless of the calculations.
The election was the first public test at the national level since Armenia's crushing military defeat to Azerbaijan in 2023 and its loss of control of the Nagorno-Karabakh region, an event that shaped the country's complex political landscape.
The Option of War and Peace
Pashinyan presented his election campaign to the Armenian street as a fateful choice between achieving a lasting and comprehensive peace with neighboring Azerbaijan or returning to the cycle of armed conflict, warning of a catastrophic war if a majority is not obtained. The government has faced harsh accusations from opposition blocs led by former presidents Robert Kocharyan and Samfil Karapetyan, who accused the authorities of exerting administrative pressure, while prosecutors announced the opening of 165 judicial investigations into suspicions of obstruction of the electoral process.
The Majority Impasse and the Treaty
Observers are waiting for the final results to be announced to determine the true size of the parliamentary majority that the Civil Contract party will form and whether it will help it pass substantive constitutional amendments demanded by Baku as a prerequisite for concluding a comprehensive peace treaty.
Despite criticism of Pashinyan's democratic experiment, the opposition has been unable to win the trust of the critical voting bloc that still associates these faces with traditional Russian influence and former economic elites ousted by the 2018 revolution.
European sources: Armenia is heading westward
European sources confirmed that this election comes at a time when historical relations between Armenia and Russia are witnessing their worst period ever, as Yerevan holds Moscow and Russian peacekeepers directly responsible for their abandonment during the 2023 Azerbaijani lightning attack on the Nagorno-Karabakh region, which ended in a mass exodus of Armenians.
According to European sources, this Armenian frustration prompted Pashinyan's government to freeze its participation in the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) and to move quickly towards strengthening political and military relations with the European Union and the United States of America, and even to put forward the idea of joining the European bloc in the future.
The sources said that this strategic shift is seen by Moscow as a direct threat to its traditional influence in the Caucasus;
Ahead of the funds, Russian President Vladimir Putin sent veiled warnings to Yerevan against the consequences of following the Ukrainian scenario, accompanied by Russian economic pressure to ban the import of Armenian agricultural products.