RFE/RL – Karapetian Suggests Run-Off Vote With Pashinian’s Party

“[Prime Minister Nikol] Pashinian did not win the elections,” he told reporters. “They too know that and the whole world probably sees that … If he is sure that he won, we propose to legitimize all that … and go into a second round.”

The Armenian constitution allows for such a possibility if none of the parties or blocs win an absolute majority of seats in the parliament and strike power-sharing deals for a coalition government.

Karapetian spoke as Strong Armenia representatives formally petitioned the Central Election Commission (CEC) to annul its preliminary results that showed Civil Contract winning the elections with 49.8 percent of the vote. Strong Armenia came in second with 23.3 percent, followed by former President Robert Kocharian’s Hayastan alliance (almost 10 percent) and the Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK) (almost 4 percent).

All three opposition groups have rejected the results as fraudulent, saying that Civil Contract miscounted ballots, forced many public sector employees to vote for it and resorted to other irregularities. They say that mass arrests of their members and supporters, which continued on election day, also influenced the outcome.

Pashinian brushed aside the allegations on Thursday. He claimed that Strong Armenia, Hayastan and the BHK themselves bought all of their votes.

Karapetian said that Strong Armenia will appeal to the Constitutional Court in the likely event of the CEC rejecting its demand. Hayastan has also announced plans to challenge the vote results in the court whose justices have been installed during Pashinian’s rule.

Both opposition blocs have acknowledged that their chances of having the results overturned are slim. They are facing calls from some of their supporters not to take up their seats in the new Armenian parliament and thus undermine its legitimacy. Their leaders are clearly leaning against that option.

Karapetian, who has mostly lived in Russia since the early 1990s, was catapulted into Armenian politics after being arrested in June last year following his strong criticism of Pashinian’s crackdown on the Armenian Apostolic Church. He was prosecuted on charges rejected by him as politically motivated.

The 60-year-old tycoon set up his opposition movement before being moved to house arrest in December. It quickly emerged as the country’s leading opposition group.

Despite being unable to physically attend Strong Armenia’s campaign rallies because of the house arrest, Karapetian repeatedly expressed confidence about its victory in the run-up to the polls. He admitted on Friday that his expectations have not been met.

“We didn’t win. Pashinian didn’t win either. The Armenian people lost,” he said.

Karapetian also insisted that he has no plans to quit politics and will keep trying to “oust Pashinian in a legal way.”

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