The parliamentary elections held in Armenia on June 7 gave the citizens the opportunity to freely choose a political alternative, but the process was accompanied by external interference and pressure on the administrative apparatus.
This was announced by the special coordinator and head of the OSCE short-term observation mission Farah Karimsummarizing the election campaign and voting day monitoring results at the June 8 press conference.
According to international observers, the June 7 elections were the most serious and important test for the entire democracy of the republic. As the OSCE special coordinator noted, the voting took place in difficult geopolitical and security conditions. “These elections took place at a very important key stage of Armenia’s development and the country continues to navigate in this rather difficult democratic and geopolitical environment,” Farah Karimi emphasized during the press conference. At the same time, he added that during the entire pre-election campaign, external pressures had a great impact on the voters.
The cases of the use of administrative resources caused special concern for the mission. In particular, we are talking about forcing the employees of state institutions to participate in the events of the ruling party and using socio-economic levers, which overshadowed the freedom of opportunities. In addition, insufficient control over campaign finances has limited the transparency of the process and opportunities for public scrutiny.
The situation was further complicated by the arrests and prosecutions of opposition representatives, polarized media landscape and provocative misinformation. According to the head of the mission, these factors, along with continuous international pressures, challenged the democratic resilience of the state and the integrity of public discourse.
Despite the complications of the pre-election period, the actual voting process received a positive response from European experts. The OSCE observers highly appreciated the situation in the observed 1403 polling stations, which Karim characterized as a rather noticeable indicator.
According to the preliminary data of the Central Electoral Commission, about 1.47 million voters participated in the voting. According to the results of all 2005 precincts, three parties will enter the new parliament. The “Civil Agreement” party secured 49.8 percent of the results, while the “Strong Armenia” and “Armenia” blocs received 23.28 and 9.93 percent of the votes, respectively.
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