Incumbent party expected to be re-elected in Armenian snap parliamentary vote
Today, Armenians will elect the next National Assembly, the country’s unicameral legislature.
The elections were triggered in October, when Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan of the My Step Alliance resigned the premiership, and no replacement was selected in the two ensuing weeks. Mr Pashinyan led the April “Velvet Revolution” that overthrew ex-Premier Serzh Sargsyan.
Mr Sargsyan’s Republican Party currently holds 50 of the legislature’s 105 seats, compared with the My Step Alliance’s six. Mr Pashinyan could not effectively govern with such a distinct minority, but today’s elections will likely more than invert the current seat totals.
Gallup polls indicate that nearly 70% of Armenians intend to vote for the My Step Alliance with a 75% turnout rate. Only 1% of respondents supported the Republican Party. This would be in line with the results of September’s Yerevan city council election, which gave the alliance 57 of 65 seats, while the Republican Party lost all of its 46 seats.
Riding a revolutionary wave, Mr Pashinyan would retake the premiership, cracking down on corruption and adopting a harsher stance toward Moscow, a break from Mr Sargsyan’s government. This could manifest in stronger claims to the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh territory via a revised military agreement with Russia.
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