Arayik Harutiunian said that the country’s leadership could hold them earlier only in the extremely unlikely event of a “world-shattering situation.”
“We have colleagues who have been talking about pre-term elections, and that has to be assessed,” Harutiunian told reporters. “We reckon that there is no need for that. So we are going for a regular election. Please don’t look for unnecessary intrigues.”
The date of the elections has been a subject of intense speculation in Armenia in the last couple of years. Parliament speaker Alen Simonian sought to end it earlier this year when he said that the showdown vote will be held in early June 2026, shortly before the current Armenian parliament completes its five-year term.
Talk of a snap vote was revived by some Armenian media outlets earlier this month. One of them claimed that Pashinian is considering bringing forward the election date because he is worried about the expansion and rising popularity of a new opposition group set up by Samvel Karapetian, a Russian-Armenian billionaire controversially arrested in June.
Pashinian added to the speculation last Friday when the governing board of his Civil Contract party appointed Harutiunian as its election campaign manager. Harutiunian downplayed the development on Wednesday, saying that the ruling party simply wants to prepare for the 2026 polls properly and “without haste.”
