Ahead of the elections, one of the most discussed topics in the Armenian society has become the issue of “dusting” of votes. The former vice-president of the National Assembly, Arpine Hovhannisyan, explained the mechanisms of the distribution of mandates with specific mathematical examples and called on the citizens to participate in the voting.

In his first message, the politician clearly denied the thesis that the votes given to the parties that did not pass the temporary threshold disappear. According to the legislation, the parliament must consist of at least 101 deputies. Hovhannisyan gave a hypothetical example of 100 voters, where 70 votes were distributed among the three leaders (40, 20 and 10), and the remaining 30 went to the backbenchers. According to the Electoral Code, these 30 “lost” votes are not canceled. they are proportionally redistributed among the victorious powers.

As a result, the leading party with 40 real votes receives a disproportionate share of the bonus seats, eventually reaching 58 parliamentary seats. This, according to the former deputy speaker, is precisely the “dusting”, when the votes of the smaller parties actually work in favor of strengthening the favorites in the race.

In his next statement, Hovhannisyan made another, more important adjustment. the greatest “dusting” occurs due to low participation. Refusal to go to the polls only means that the vote of the absentee citizen is mathematically redistributed in favor of the biggest political players.

The politician emphasized that there are at least three political forces in Armenia that are capable of overcoming the temporary threshold, so citizens who do not want to support the favorites should carefully study the programs of alternative parties that have a chance to enter the parliament.

Hovhannisyan also dispelled the widespread myth that this mathematical model is an innovation of the current Constitution, reminding that similar mandate distribution formulas with different variations have been used in Armenia since 1995.

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Ahead of the June 7 parliamentary elections, the “New Power” party presented the economic bloc of its pre-election program. Prime Minister candidate Hayk Marutyan has promised to radically revise the recent tax reforms, doubling the turnover tax rate and returning preferential regimes for the service sector in order to stimulate the economic activity of the population.

In a video message published on social networks, Hayk Marutyan announced his intention to lower the turnover tax from the current ten percent to five percent. In addition, the politician plans to return specialized services to the turnover tax regime. Responding to concerns about the possible reduction of budget revenues, the party leader expressed confidence that the reduction of the tax burden will have the opposite effect.

According to him, the creation of comfortable financial conditions motivates people to work more, which will eventually lead to an organic increase in payments to the state treasury.

This initiative is a direct response to the amendments to the RA Tax Code that came into force in 2025. With that legislative package, the turnover tax for commercial activities was doubled. At the same time, a number of professional fields, including legal, accounting, consulting services, construction, real estate agencies, architecture and advertising, were forced into the field of value added taxation. The mechanisms for deducting expenses from the amount of turnover tax were also reviewed.

The softening of the fiscal policy is only one of the seven pillars of the pre-election program of the “New Power” party, which has registered a list of eighty-six candidates in the Central Electoral Commission.

The political manifesto also includes European integration as a foreign policy priority, a complete ban on online casinos, providing large-scale benefits to large families, providing free higher education, eliminating the statute of limitations for corruption crimes, and returning to national values. The pre-election campaign with the participation of nineteen political forces will continue until June 5.

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In the hot period of the pre-election campaign in Armenia, the representatives of the ruling party comment on the recent emotional incidents. Anahit Avanesyan, the Minister of Health, who is on vacation, defended the Prime Minister’s harsh rhetoric, accusing the political opponents of trying to divide Armenians and drag the country into a new war.

On May 18, during a meeting with voters in the Arabkir administrative district of the capital, Anahit Avanesyan touched on the sensitive topic of relations within the Armenian society. He emphasized that compatriots of Nagorno-Karabakh have always been in the center of attention and care of both ordinary citizens and the state institutions of Armenia. The minister called to prevent any attempt to drive a wedge between the Armenians of Artsakh and Armenia.

Commenting on the latest incident in which Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan He had a heated debate with a voter on the subject of Nagorno-Karabakh, Avanesyan described the statements of the head of the government as harsh but justified. According to him, such reaction was a response to “semi-terrorist manifestations” by the opponents. The minister recalled the tragic events of October 27, 1999 and March 1, 2008, declaring that the era of terrorism in Armenia is irrevocably past, and no one is allowed to manipulate the feelings of citizens.

The representative of the ruling power strongly criticized the actions of the opposition. He accused the so-called “Karabakh clan” of promoting their own interests and trying to return the country to the logic of the conflict. According to Avanesyan, the three-headed war party is trying to drag Armenia into confrontation again, but the authorities give a clear answer: the era of conflicts is over, and the state is a supporter of peace.

At the same time, he expressed a negative attitude towards any call for violence and reminded that the leader of the ruling party has long been offering an open debate to all former leaders who have ever been responsible for the country.

Referring directly to the incident between Pashinyan and a local resident, who was accused by supporters of the government of carrying out the order of the opposition, Avanesyan did not see a problem in using the word “uncle” addressed to her. He noted that constructive criticism is welcome, but in this case the woman came to ask her question and was not ready to hear the Prime Minister’s answer.

This episode was another expression of a series of tense dialogues and clashes at pre-election meetings, where political contradictions often turn into public threats and accusations.

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A political scandal is brewing in Armenia over an anonymous video message in which masked persons threaten Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. In response, the head of the government delivered an unprecedentedly harsh speech, promising to find the authors of the video and accusing his main political opponents of organizing the provocation.

The incident started with the publication of a video on social networks, in which unknown persons speaking in the Artsakh dialect, masked their faces, addressed the Prime Minister. They accused the head of the government of deceiving the people, handing over the territories of Nagorno-Karabakh and being ready to cede the sovereign lands of Armenia itself.

The authors of the message stated that they know the movement routes of the politician, accompanying their words with direct threats.

Nikol Pashinyan the response was not late and was heard during one of the pre-election rallies. The prime minister promised in a very tough and emotional way to find out the identity of the persons seen in the video and to bring them to justice.

Using street slang, the head of the government called the video’s authors deserters who left the soldiers alone, and promised to tear off their masks and “take them down”. He called on anonymous persons to voluntarily surrender to law enforcement agencies.

The situation took on an even sharper political tone when the Prime Minister linked the emergence of this video to his main opponents.

Without presenting facts, Pashinyan publicly announced that the supporters of the second and third presidents of the republic, Robert Kocharyan and Serzh Sargsyan, as well as big businessmen Samvel Karapetyan and Gagik Tsarukyan, are behind the masked persons. The head of the government threatened this entire circle with harsh measures.

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Despite the complex political background, trade and economic contacts between Baku and Yerevan show some dynamics due to the use of transit routes. During the first four months of 2026, the volume of exports from Azerbaijan to the Armenian market reached the limit of 9.6 million US dollars.

According to the official statistical data of the State Customs Committee of Azerbaijan, which were published by local mass media, the volume of recorded deliveries is 0.08 percent of the country’s total exports during the specified period. Trade cooperation between the countries is carried out mainly by using the logistics capabilities of neighboring Georgia.

In this context, the transit of energy carriers in December was a significant event. At that time, a large railway rolling stock consisting of twenty-two wagons arrived in Armenia for the first time through the territory of Georgia, which delivered around 1300 tons of fuel produced by the Azerbaijani state energy company Socar.

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The appeal criminal court of RA rejected the appeal of the defense attorney of the Russian citizen seeking asylum, leaving unchanged the coercive measure of medical nature applied to the man accused of hooliganism. The court made such a decision based on the lack of medical documents certifying the improvement of the health condition.

The incident, on the basis of which criminal proceedings were initiated, took place in mid-July last year. According to the case materials, while in the departure hall of the “Zvartnots” international airport, the foreigner grossly violated the public order. Showing a clear contemptuous attitude towards the environment and moral norms, he threw a bottle of alcoholic drink in the direction of the benches, and also uttered curses and obscene expressions directed at Armenian women, the nation and RA Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. Such aggressive actions disturbed the peace of passengers and the normal operation of the airport.

On charges of hooliganism, the court imposed medical supervision as a security measure, the term of which was extended in April of this year until June 10. The accused’s lawyer appealed against this decision, arguing that his client’s mental state has improved significantly, so there is no longer any need for a coercive measure.

The appellate court, however, recorded that the defense did not present any medical certificate documenting the improvement, effectively depriving the court of the opportunity to evaluate the circumstance. As a result, the presence of grounds and conditions for continuing the surveillance was recorded. At present, the Russian citizen continues to stay in one of the mental health centers of the RA Ministry of Health.

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In Armenia, the anonymous video with the participation of armed men, in which threats are made to the head of the government, received a great public and legal response. While the law enforcement officers have initiated criminal proceedings under the article of preparation for murder, human rights defenders are sounding the alarm, urging not to use the incident to instill discrimination against those forcibly displaced from Nagorno Karabakh.

The “Five Human Rights Defenders Initiative” made a statement, strongly condemning the way of using the video message of five masked persons as an opportunity and inciting public tension towards the Artsakh Armenians. Experts were especially concerned by the fact that the prime minister repeatedly emphasized the Artsakh dialect of the authors of the clip in his public speeches. According to human rights defenders, such rhetoric will inevitably lead to the rise of hatred towards the people of Artsakh.

The reason for the escalation of the situation was the video circulating on social networks, where unknown persons, masked and allegedly armed with assault rifles, make direct threats of physical reprisals to Nikol Pashinyan in the Artsakh dialect. The response of the Prime Minister followed during the pre-election meeting held on May 18 in the Arabkir administrative district of the capital. The head of the government countered the anonymous persons with very harsh and offensive language, urging them to voluntarily surrender to the law enforcement officers and promising to find and severely punish each of them.

Along with the political statements, the incident also received a legal evaluation. The Investigative Committee of Armenia has initiated criminal proceedings on the grounds of preparation for murder by a group of persons, illegal circulation of firearms and ammunition, and computer sabotage.

According to the pre-investigative body, the video containing a real threat to the Prime Minister’s life was illegally caught and distributed on the Internet with motives of political intolerance and hatred, combined with hooliganism. Currently, the law enforcement agencies are conducting an active investigation to find out the identity of the persons who committed the crime.

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The process of normalization of relations between Armenia, Azerbaijan and Turkey and the possible opening of borders directly depend on the signing of the peace treaty and the constitutional changes in Yerevan. This was stated by the Ambassador of Azerbaijan to Turkey, Rashad Mammadov, emphasizing the close coordination of the actions of Baku and Ankara.

In an interview given to the Turkish Cumhuriyet newspaper on May 18, the diplomat, answering the question about Baku’s obstructing role in the opening of the Armenian-Turkish border, noted that the processes of regional regulation are proceeding in parallel. According to him, Azerbaijan and Turkey coordinate every diplomatic step and move forward exclusively together.

Mammadov claims that the main obstacle to peace remains the Constitution of Armenia, in which Baku sees territorial claims. The ambassador expressed his belief that after the parliamentary elections to be held on June 7, a constitutional referendum will be held in Armenia, which will allow the parties to finally sign the already initialed peace agreement.

Such rhetoric has become traditional for the Azerbaijani political leadership. On international platforms, official Baku regularly and purposefully connects the establishment of peace with the amendment of the Mother Law of the neighboring republic.

This position is fully shared by the Turkish side, synchronizing its foreign policy messages with Azerbaijan. Official Ankara openly declares that establishment of diplomatic relations with Yerevan will become possible only in the context of Armenian-Azerbaijani reconciliation. The latest statement of Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan is cited as confirmation of this direction, where he publicly assured that the Armenian-Turkish border will be opened immediately after the signing of the peace treaty between Baku and Yerevan.

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In response to the questions of many media, I present our position regarding the sensational video with the participation of masked persons.

We strongly condemn any call for violence, unconstitutional action or manifestation. Such phenomena are unacceptable.

We call on the law enforcement agencies to reveal all the circumstances as soon as possible, to hold the guilty accountable. The law enforcement system, if desired, can do this, because it has all the necessary resources and tools.

At the same time, it is important to dispel the suspicions spread among the public that government circles may be behind the distribution of the video.

At the same time, we are convinced that any video, regardless of its content, cannot and should not become an occasion for spreading anti-Artsakh propaganda, public enmity or public hatred, especially by the current authorities.

Today more than ever we need internal solidarity and responsible public discourse.

PAP speaker, MP candidate Iveta Tonoyan

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