Armenia’s ruling party wins municipal elections uncontested

On Sunday, the Civil Contract party was re-elected in two of the four Armenian communities where municipal elections were held, having run uncontested. The opposition, which had promised to field candidates in the regional elections, did not do so.

In two other communities, the results have yet to be announced.

This fall, 19 areas will hold municipal elections, but the opposition isn’t contesting them widely. Strong Armenia will run only in Stepanavan, while in Hrazdan, Tsakhadzor, Martuni, Araks and Artashat the opposition will be represented by candidates from the Armenia Alliance.

Civil Contract’s candidate for the town of Tumanyan in Armenia’s Lori province, Suren Tumanyan, has been re-elected with 95.1% of the vote. He ran uncontested. In 2021 Tumanyan ran in the local elections on the opposition Republican Party list and defeated Civil Contract. He left the opposition party and joined the ruling party in 2026. He confirmed the move to Factor.am, without explaining why he left the Republican Party.

The ruling Civil Contract party often recruits popular candidates from other parties. In Goris, for example, Mayor Arush Arushanyan, a former vocal critic of the government who accused Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan of losing Nagorno-Karabakh before, will ally with Civil Contract in the next elections.

Prior to the election, Pashinyan announced they would form an electoral alliance with Arushanyan’s Business Party. While Goris voters backed Civil Contract in the 2021 parliamentary election, they elected Arushanyan as mayor in the local vote that same year. Pashinyan said that the decision also reflects a wish to avoid renewed tensions in the community and added that similar ‘solidarity alliances’ could be formed in other communities.

Strong Armenia, the largest opposition force in parliament, won 26% in the Tumanyan community in June but fielded no candidate in its local election. The faction’s secretary, Tigran Abrahamyan, told Factor.am that the party will contest some local elections and skip others, focusing on communities where it sees a high chance of winning.

Tumanyan is the largest of the four communities holding elections, with a population of over 4,000. The council here is elected under the proportional system. Because Civil Contract was the only party standing, voters could only vote ‘for’ or ‘against,’ which meant the party needed more than half of the votes cast, with no minimum turnout thresholds. In Tumanyan, 2,390 of 2,520 participants voted for Civil Contract (95.1%), 123 voted against (4.9%), and seven ballots were invalid, according to Mkrtchyan.

On Sunday, Lermontovo in the Lori province, Ferik in Armavir, and Arzni in Kotayk also held local elections. In Lermontovo, Edik Chakhalyan, backed by Civil Contract, was re-elected community head with 96.6%, Governor Mkrtchyan announced.

In Ferik and Arzni, only the city council was elected. Ferik is a Yezidi-populated village where five people were nominated for five positions. At the time of writing, the Central Electoral Commission had not yet published the official results, but announced the voter turnout figures for Tumanyan (around 60%), Ferik (57%), Lermontovos (35%), and Arzni (45%).