Initial ballot counting of the votes submitted for the general election in Armenia shows that the incumbent Prime Minister, Nikol Pashinyan, and the party he leads, the Civil Contract Party, have won a resounding victory with up to 56% of the vote. The main Opposition and pro-Russian party, called Strong Armenia got just 22% of the vote.
Prime Minister Pashinyan ran on a pro-European ticket, with his party favouring EU accession and breaking from a decades-old foreign policy tradition of alignment with Moscow. Relations between Armenia and Russia broke down after Azerbaijan successfully captured the Armenian-controlled territory of Artsakh, or Nagorno-Karabakh, and expelled its citizens. A peace deal between Azerbaijan and Armenia was brokered by US President Donald Trump.
Since then, Russia has taken strong offence at Armenia’s turn and threatened to raise the prices of Armenia’s energy purchases. On April 1st, Prime Minister Pashinyan told Vladimir Putin to his face in Moscow that Armenia was a democratic country. The EU is non-committal on Armenian membership but is developing closer ties.
Photo and video below of Nikol Pashinyan’s final rally in Yerevan before the election.
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