Nikol Pashinyan © AP Photo / Anthony Pizzoferrato
According to the Migration and Citizenship Service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Armenia, 2 million 485 thousand 851 people have the right to vote in the parliamentary elections in Armenia.
A total of 2005 polling stations have been set up across Armenia for voting,” Armenpress reported.
Seventy-one media outlets have been accredited to cover the elections. Thirteen local and eight international observation missions have been accredited to monitor the voting process.
18 political forces have registered to participate in the elections: 16 parties and 2 alliances.
Pashinyan expects to remain in power
According to BBC, current Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan expects to remain in power and win a third consecutive victory. The main issue during the election campaign was Armenia’s relations with Russia and the country’s intention to get closer to the European Union.
In May, a large-scale EU-Armenia summit was held in Yerevan, attended by the leaders of many European countries and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. At it, French President Emmanuel Macron assured that “Armenia is moving decisively towards Europe,” and the head of Eurodiplomacy Kaya Kallas made it clear that EU membership could be open to Yerevan.
“Institutional” relations with Russia
At the same time, Nikol Pashinyan himself does not see tension in Armenian-Russian relations and considers talk about it artificial. “Our relations with Russia are institutionalized and based on mutual respect,” the prime minister said at a briefing with journalists after voting in the parliamentary elections.
“Pleasant” news from von der Leyen
At the same time, he said that the European Union market will be open for Armenian agricultural products without customs duties.
“The European Union has already become a new export destination. The most important and pleasant news is that in a telephone conversation with me, the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, in addition to the fact that now there will be urgent support in the amount of 50 million euros to subsidize artificial problems related to the export of agricultural and other products, also conveyed another very important information: the agricultural products of the Republic of Armenia will be exported to the European Union without customs duties, i.e. within the framework of free customs regime,” he said.
According to him, all EU member states are becoming new export destinations for Armenia.
Incidents at the elections
Meanwhile, according to the Interior Ministry, citizens of the Republic of Armenia received calls and messages from foreign phone numbers and e-mail addresses spreading information about bombs planted in some polling stations.
In addition, two chairmen and one secretary of election commissions were detained. Vahagn Hovakimyan, Chairman of the Central Election Commission of the Republic of Armenia, informed about it, presenting the progress of work at the polling stations.
As of 14:00, 33.84% of eligible voters took part in the voting.
