Armenia’s parliamentary election ended in a clear victory for Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s ruling Civil Contract party. After ballots from all 2,005 polling stations were counted, the party took 49.81% of the vote. The election unfolded against a backdrop of the highest turnout in recent years — while also being marked by dozens of detentions, criminal cases over vote-buying, and accusations of political pressure leveled by the opposition.
Who Enters Parliament
According to the Central Election Commission’s final results, second place went to the opposition bloc Strong Armenia, led by billionaire Samvel Karapetyan, owner of the Tashir industrial and construction group, with 23.29%. The Armenia bloc of former president Robert Kocharyan came third with 9.94%. The Prosperous Armenia party of businessman Gagik Tsarukyan rounded out the list of qualifying forces, having only narrowly cleared the 4% threshold. The opposition force Unity Wings, led by former ombudsman Arman Tatoyan, fell short of that bar.
A total of 18 political forces took part in the vote — 16 parties and two alliances. The threshold was set at 4% for individual parties, 8% for blocs of two to three parties, and 10% for coalitions of four or more. Armenia has no minimum turnout requirement.
The result allows Civil Contract to form a government on its own. Pashinyan announced this to reporters even before the majority of ballots had been counted, stressing that his party had won more votes than in the previous election. With first-round seats alone, however, it will not have the numbers needed to amend the constitution.
The Highest Turnout in Years
Voting ran from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. local time. Around 2.49 million voters were eligible; nearly 1.48 million cast ballots, for a turnout of 58.97%. That is markedly higher than the 2021 snap election, which drew 49.4% of voters. The 2026 vote was also Armenia’s first regular, rather than early, parliamentary election since 2017.
Pashinyan: Tension with Russia Is Manufactured
Pashinyan voted early in the morning at a polling station in Yerevan. He then said that the pre-election deterioration in relations with Moscow was artificial in nature: according to the prime minister, ties between the two countries rest on an institutional foundation and mutual respect, and it is “certain forces” within Armenia itself that are stoking tensions. He insisted he maintains close contact with Vladimir Putin and noted that Yerevan cannot be excluded from the Eurasian Economic Union, since decisions there are taken by consensus and Armenia holds a veto.
At the same time, the head of government spoke of closer ties with the European Union. At a press briefing, he said Brussels was ready to open the European market to Armenian agricultural products free of customs duties. Pashinyan referred to his June 4 conversation with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, in which, he said, the EU had promised Armenia a package of support, including financial aid of more than 50 million euros and easier access for certain goods to the European market.
The pre-election period was marked by significant external pressure. In the weeks before the vote, Russia restricted imports of several Armenian agricultural products, as well as brandy and wine — a move widely seen as economic pressure. Western analysts pointed to online disinformation campaigns and the spread of narratives portraying cooperation with Europe as a threat.
Karapetyan Voted from House Arrest
The prime minister’s main rival, Strong Armenia leader Samvel Karapetyan, is under house arrest. On election day he was brought to a polling station in Yerevan, where he was able to vote. The politician told reporters that the election was accompanied by mass detentions of his supporters: according to him, more than a hundred people had been detained the day before, with arrests continuing on voting day. Karapetyan denied the vote-buying allegations, said he was confident of victory, and promised that, if he won, he would pursue a balanced foreign policy — maintaining good relations with the United States, the European Union, and Russia alike.
Representatives of the bloc also claimed that police had, in their account, illegally broken into Strong Armenia’s offices in Gyumri and detained three people, while refusing to let lawyers inside. The alliance sees this as an attempt to paralyze its campaign headquarters.
Arrests and Vote-Buying Cases
Voting day and its eve saw heavy activity by law enforcement. According to the ruling Civil Contract’s campaign headquarters, around 200 people were detained on June 6 — the day of electoral silence — for violations of election law; the head of the headquarters, Arayik Harutyunyan, reported several investigations and cases opened.
Armenia’s Anti-Corruption Committee reported violations on the part of Strong Armenia: it opened a criminal case over the distribution of electoral bribes by a candidate from Karapetyan’s bloc in the Lori region, and carried out arrests and searches. The committee later said it had, together with police, uncovered a scheme to buy off some 45 voters for a total of 7.5 million drams — seven people were arrested in connection with the case.
By midday, the Interior Ministry’s hotline had received 57 reports of irregularities, and 14 people had been detained. The chairman of the Central Election Commission, Vahagn Hovakimyan, also announced the arrest of two chairpersons and one secretary of election commissions, without specifying which cases were involved.
