Pashinyan Wins Majority in Armenia’s Highest Voter Turnout Since 2018

Listen to the AI generated audio article.

Civil Contract has won the 2026 Armenian Parliamentary election, securing a comfortable majority with nearly 50% of the vote. The result guarantees Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan a third consecutive term in office, and a mandate to pursue his peace agenda. 

After a particularly divisive election campaign, voters came out in force with national turnout nearly reaching as high as 59% – the highest since the 2018 election. 

According to the latest count, Civil Contract has received 727,160 votes or 49.825% of the total share. Though this grants Pashinyan an overall majority in parliament, Civil Contract fell short of the two-thirds majority which would enable them to amend the constitution.  

Since last August’s normalization talks with Azerbaijan, Pashinyan has pushed for a referendum to remove territorial claims over Artsakh from the constitution, in what Baku has framed as a precondition for peace. 

Samvel Karapetyan’s Strong Armenia trailed in second with 340,088 votes or 23.281%. The new party’s relatively strong performance cements Karapetyan’s position as the main opposition figure after Robert Kocharyan’s relatively poor showing. 

After initial results came in yesterday morning, Karapetyan said that the “elections are not over yet.” He has accused Civil Contract of having “resorted to special measures” to secure victory. His party later released a statement outlining that they were “analyzing the situation” ahead of any further action. 

Robert Kocharyan’s Armenia Alliance, followed in third place with 145,113 votes or 9.934% – narrowly exceeding the threshold for party blocs. This represents a significant drop for the former president, having secured just over 21% in the 2021 election.  

The Armenia Alliance has requested a recount while also promising to challenge the election results in the Constitutional Court. In a Facebook post Kocharyan claimed that the elections were held “amid widespread pressure, arrests of opposition figures, the unprecedented use of administrative resources, and electoral violations.”

Gagik Tsarukyan’s Prosperous Armenia could still win a place in parliament after having received 58,378 votes – just shy of the threshold at 3.996%. The party has requested a recount to recover the 4% vote share that the first count had initially indicated. Spokesperson Iveta Tonoyan has said that the party will use all legal tools to “pursue the uncovering of electoral violations.”

The outcome of the recount could prove pivotal in the final formation of the parliament. If Prosperous Armenia does scrape past the threshold, it would negate Civil Contract’s current three-fifths majority by marginally reducing their number of seats in parliament. A three-fifths majority would expand the party’s legislative power by allowing them to amend constitutional laws that could alter existing judicial and electoral codes.

Amid calls for a recount, state prosecutors have charged Prosperous Armenia’s leader, Gagik Tsarukyan, with tax evasion. He was seen at Zvartnots International Airport, reportedly attempting to leave the country, though he currently remains in Armenia. 

None of the other 15 parties managed to pass the threshold with Arman Tatoyan’s Wings of Unity Party coming closest at 2.3%. Tatoyan has also demanded a recount noting “unprecedented abuse of administrative resources by the authorities.”

The International Republican Institute (IRI), who oversaw an election observation mission in Armenia, described the voting process as “calm and well-administered.” They went on to applaud election officials for “ensuring a credible, transparent, electoral process.” 

The OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) also upheld the legitimacy of the election, describing it as a “well-run process” at a press conference on Monday.  

However, they cited some concerns about allegations of vote-buying and opposition suppression  in a campaign that they categorized as ‘highly confrontational.” 

“The concentration of arrests and criminal prosecutions against opposition figures contributed to perceptions of selective justice,” said Farah Karimi, Special Co-ordinator and leader of the short-term OSCE observer mission. 

The OSCE also highlighted the “tense geopolitical context” in which the election took place. Damian Cottier, Head of the delegation of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, said that “pressure and threats from Russian authorities reached an unprecedented and worrying level.”

Pashinyan proclaimed a “historic victory that will ensure Armenia’s eternity and development” at his campaign headquarters early Monday morning, some hours before the Central Election Commission had fully completed the count.

The Prime Minister has pledged to continue his fight against Armenia’s so-called “criminal-oligarchic system.” He went on to call for the imprisonment of the main opposition leaders – a demand that he has made throughout the election campaign. 

Pashinyan addressed concerns about European integration, arguing that Armenia must consolidate its democracy before fully considering accession to the European Union.  

Similarly, he said that Armenia will maintain its EAEU membership and look to develop relations with Russia and other member states. This comes after Moscow threatened to suspend Armenia’s membership after Pashinyan sought to build closer ties with the West.

Both the high turnout and the reported legitimacy of the vote have handed Pashinyan a mandate to pursue his peace agenda. He emphasized the immediate importance of ratifying the peace agreement with Azerbaijan, paving the way for the TRIPP project which he described as a “game changer”. 

Pashinyan also outlined his goal of establishing diplomatic relations and an open border with Turkey. “I hope this will be welcomed positively in Turkey and Azerbaijan,” he said.

Pashinyan reportedly spoke with French President Emanuel Macron and the Georgian Prime Minister, Irakli Kobakhidze, after the polls closed. President Macron offered congratulations to Pashinyan in a post on X. “I am delighted to continue working alongside you to further strengthen our cooperation in service of our peoples,” he said.

EU Commissioner Ursula von der Leyen also took to X to congratulate Prime Minister Pashinyan.“We deeply value our partnership with a democratic Armenia that is drawing ever closer to Europe,” she said. “Armenia can count on us.”

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who visited Armenia just before the election, followed with a congratulatory post emphasizing the U.S.’s commitment to peace and the implementation of the TRIPP project. President Trump, who endorsed Pashinyan in advance of the election, has yet to release a statement. 

Meanwhile, Kremlin spokesperson, Maria Zakharova, condemned alleged western interference in Armenia’s election and cited “brutal reprisals” against opposition parties. “Moscow has always had and will continue to have a stake in a strong and genuinely sovereign Armenia.”
The Central Election Commission have announced that they will begin the recount process today, with the results expected at a later point.

Elections

News Watch