Democracy Hijacked: Armenia’s Rigged Parliamentary Elections — By Harut Sassounian
Armenia’s parliamentary elections were held on June 7 under widespread, systematic, and well-documented fraudulent conditions.
These elections were not merely held to determine the representatives of the people or the future orientation of the country. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan was well aware that the outcome would decide whether he could continue to rule the country single-handedly for another five years or face prosecution for violating hundreds of laws and the constitution.
Realizing that this was a fight for personal survival, Pashinyan resorted to every legal and illegal means at his disposal to secure reelection and avoid imprisonment.
The electoral fraud started long before a single vote was cast. In a series of draconian measures in the months leading up to the election, Pashinyan ordered the arrests of hundreds of opposition supporters, accusing them of buying votes. Yet, not a single one of the arrested individuals has been tried or found guilty. Furthermore, without any legal authority, he ordered the arrests of several parliamentary candidates from the opposition. His intent was to undermine their electoral campaigns and intimidate their supporters. He also violated the legal requirement of obtaining prior approval from the Central Election Commission before arresting any candidate for parliament. Pashinyan additionally barred opposition leaders Gagik Tsarukyan, Robert Kocharyan, and Narek Karapetyan from leaving the country for brief trips, again without the required approval of the Central Election Commission.
Pashinyan ordered the arrest of prominent businessman and philanthropist Samvel Karapetyan on the very day he said he defended the Armenian Apostolic Church. After spending months in pretrial detention under harsh conditions, Karapetyan was placed under house arrest. In doing so, Pashinyan effectively deprived a major political opponent of the ability to campaign for his party ahead of the elections.
Pashinyan travelled throughout the country for several weeks before the election, improperly using extensive government resources for his political campaign. He was accompanied by government ministers and parliamentary leaders who abused their official positions by failing to take leave of absence.
Contrary to election laws, the government compelled hundreds of schoolchildren and teachers to attend Pashinyan’s campaign rallies during school hours, to create the appearance of massive public support. Government employees faced similar forced attendance.
Regarding voter rolls, the Central Election Commission announced 2.5 million registered voters in a country with a population of at most three million. This includes a large number of children under 18 and hundreds of thousands of Armenians who had emigrated years earlier but whose names remained on the registered voter lists This discrepancy created ample opportunity for fraud, as the government could cast votes in the names of absent citizens. Indeed, several voters reported arrived at polling stations only to discover that someone else had already voted in their place.
Additional fraud occurred when authorities brought a large number of soldiers to polling stations and instructed them to vote for the Prime Minister’s party. These soldiers engaged in multiple voting by moving between several precincts — a tactic known as “Carousel voting.”
The authorities also created obstacles for those citizens of Armenia who had come from overseas specifically to vote. Upon arrival, many were immediately sent for 25-day military training, thus depriving them of their voting rights.
Remarkably, after only a small number of votes were counted on June 7, Pashinyan hastily announced that his party had won a majority, thereby pressuring the Central Election Commission to declare him the victor.
After preliminary counting on June 8, serious discrepancies emerged between the votes recorded at polling stations, and the totals reported by the Central Election Commission. Hundreds, if not thousands, of votes for opposition parties were undercounted. All three major opposition parties rejected the results as fraudulent, called for new elections, and appealed to the Constitutional Court. However, new elections would likely yield the same outcome under the same fraudulent methods. Moreover, all the members of the Constitutional Court were appointed by Pashinyan’s parliamentary allies, making any overturning of the results virtually impossible.
On June 14, a full week after the elections, the Central Election Commission announced the final results. Despite documentation from the Prosperous Armenia party showing plenty of uncounted votes, the Commission claimed the party had fallen a few votes short of the 4% threshold. As a result Pashinyan’s Civil Contract party was reported to have received 49.75% of the votes — which translates to 64 parliamentary seats; Strong Armenia party received 23.27% — 29 seats; and Armenia Alliance received 9.9% — 12 seats. Pashinyan’s party secured approximately 60% of the seats in parliament, despite receiving only 49% of the public votes because 15 other parties having fallen below the 4% threshold, their votes were redistributed — largely benefiting Pashinyan’s party.
Nevertheless, Pashinyan’s party failed to achieve the two-thirds majority needed, to adopt the new constitution demanded by Pres. Ilham Aliyev. Consequently, Azerbaijan will not sign Pashinyan’s much-touted Peace Treaty. This outcome is highly embarrassing for Pashinyan, who had campaigned on a promise of peace while accusing the opposition of being “parties of war.”
Over the past week, there has been extensive debate in Armenia about whether opposition parties should take their seats in the fraudulent parliament or boycott it. Both options carry advantages and disadvantages. They will shortly announce their decision.
Regardless of whether the opposition parties choose to assume their seats, they should take two critical steps:
