Armenian opposition leaders accused Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian of trying to rig Sunday’s parliamentary elections after he rushed to claim victory with less than one fifth of ballots cast counted.
“This is a historic victory that will definitely ensure the survival and development of the Republic of Armenia,” Pashinian declared in the early hours of Monday.
The statement came as early election results mostly reported from rural precincts showed his Civil Contract party winning an absolute majority of votes. Pashinian downplayed the fact that Armenia’s Central Election Commission (CEC) has not yet tabulated and released at that point vote results from the vast majority of polling stations across the country.
“We have proxies at all polling stations, and we have the protocols [of vote results there,] and we do our own calculations,” he told a news conference held at around 2:30 a.m.
The main opposition groups challenging Civil Contract were quick to dismiss Pashinian’s declaration and accuse him of exerting pressure on the CEC. Samvel Karapetian, the leader of the main opposition Strong Armenia bloc, claimed that election officials linked to the ruling party stopped vote counts in many precincts in Yerevan and other urban centers.
“Seeing that their results are falling every minute, they have stopped counts, and we don’t even know what will be presented in the morning,” Karapetian told reporters. “I want to assure you that the elections are not yet over. There are no election results yet.”
“So don’t worry, they won’t have their victory because you could tell from their interviews and expressions of their faces that they are not doing well,” he said.
The opposition Hayastan alliance charged that Pashinian attempted to influence the work of the CEC and thus “usurp power.”
“The ruling regime must still be held legally accountable for all the election violations recorded during this period,” it said in a statement.
Arman Tatoyan, the leader of another major opposition party running in the elections, denounced Pashinian’s statement as unconstitutional.
“The head of government has no authority to make a statement and declare his absolute victory when a little more than 10 percent of the ballots have been calculated, when not even 10 percent of the ballots cast in Yerevan have been tallied,” he said.
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