Armenia’s Central Election Committee on Sunday published the final results of the June 7 Parliamentary Elections, sparking renewed accusations from opposition forces, and Armenia’s election watchdogs, of vote rigging to favor Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and his Civil Contract Party.
The CEC declared Civil Contract the winner of the elections, with two opposition alliances, businessman Samvel Karapetyan’s Strong Armenia and former president Robert Kocharian’s Armenia blocs, also entering the new parliament.
Businessman Gagik Tsarukyan’s Prosperous Armenia Party did not pass the four-percent threshold because the CEC invalidated entire results from three precincts last week, prompting the party’s leaders to cry foul.
The final vote results announced on Sunday were virtually identical with the CEC’s preliminary tally released following the vote count on June 8.
According to the results, Pashinyan’s Civil Contract party won almost 49.8 percent of the votes and won 61 seats in the 105-member National Assembly. The Strong Armenia bloc came in second with nearly 23.3 percent, followed by the Armenia alliance, which received 9.9 percent of the votes. The CEC claimed that Prosperous Armenia Party only got 3.99 percent of the votes, thus not qualifying it to enter the parliament.
The Strong Armenia alliance will have 29 seats, with the Armenia bloc receiving 12 seats.
The CEC also allocated three seats to the Civil Contract Party, raising its presence to 64 seats, thus allotting the prime minister’s party a three-fifths majority. The three added votes comprise the representation of national minorities. Strong Armenia also gained one seat from the national minorities allocation.
Immediately after the announcement of the results, seven opposition forces issued a joint statement challenging the results of the elections. The signatories included the three top opposition vote getters, as well as Edmon Marukyan’s Bright Armenia party; the Armenian National Congress, headed by former president Levon Ter-Petrossian; and the Armenian People’s Group.
“Nikol Pashinyan and his regime would bear full responsibility for any further escalation of the situation in the country,” the joint statement warned.
As a result of a recounts and verification in some precincts last week, the Prosperous Armenia Party recovered 147 votes However, the CEC’s decision on Thursday to cancel vote results in the three polling stations, which gave 222 votes to the Prosperous Armenia Party, ensured that the opposition would not have more seats in parliament.
Opposition forces condemned the decision, saying that the Armenian authorities are illegally trying to give Civil Contract a more comfortable majority in the new parliament. They said the CEC should now at least rerun the elections in those rural precincts.
The commission headed by a longtime Pashinyan collaborator, Vahakn Hovakimyan, refused to do that, saying that the more than 3,000 voters living there cannot influence the overall election outcome. The opposition countered that they can give the Prosperous Armenia Party the missing votes that would translate into five parliament seats.
Hundreds of opposition members and supporters rallied outside the CEC building before its announcement.
“It’s clear that CEC is directed by one person and that person is Nikol Pashiniyan,” Propserous Armenia Party spokeswoman Iveta Tonoyan told reporters. “This is the most disgraceful election I’ve seen during my 20-year political activities.”
“Our people won’t allow government to be formed with stolen votes,” declared the Armenia Alliance’s Gegham Manukyan.
Meanwhile, independent vote-monitoring groups on Monday joined the Armenian opposition in challenging the official election results.
The Independent Observer, coalition of three watchdog groups, accused the CEC of illegally giving Civil Contract several more seats in Armenia’s new parliament.
“We didn’t expect the CEC to break the law to such an extent,” said the Independent Observer coordinator, Daniel Ioannisyan.
Hovakimyan, the CEC president, did not deny opposition claims that it deliberately left out the Prosperous Armenian Party in favor of Pashinyan’s Civil Contract.
In a statement issued on Monday, Hovakimyan said that a repeat election in the three precincts would have led to “tactical voting,” presumably by supporters of other opposition forces keen to help the BHK enter the parliament.
He claimed that this would have given then an unfair advantage over other voters who did not know on June 7 “what impact their vote would have on the final outcome.”
Ioannisyan brushed aside the explanation, arguing that the Prosperous Armenia Party already won on June 7 enough votes in the three polling stations to clear the four percent threshold. He insisted that the CEC decision runs counter to the Armenian Electoral Code. The new parliament will lack legitimacy unless the Constitutional Court will overturns the decision, added Ioannisyan.
A representative of another vote-monitoring group, Akanates (Eyewitness), also criticized the CEC for not re-running the elections in the three rural precincts.
“I find that decision very controversial first and foremost in terms of public trust in the electoral process and in terms of the legitimacy of the elections,” Meri Minasian told Azatutyun.am.
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