Armenia’s parliamentary election, held on Sunday against the backdrop of tensions with Russia, has been overshadowed by arrests, bomb threats and finger pointing.
The pro-Russian billionaire Samvel Karapetyan, who leads the Strong Armenia opposition party, said more than 100 of his supporters have been detained over the past two days.
“At this very moment, further arrests of our supporters are taking place,” he said as he cast his vote. Another pro-Russian opposition party also complained of arrests.
Karapetyan, who also holds a Russian passport, has himself been under house arrest for months. The authorities accuse him of attempting a coup in connection with unrest earlier this year.
The Interior Ministry justified the arrests around election day by citing allegations of attempted vote-buying.
In Gyumri, the country’s second-largest city, police searched the Strong Armenia offices, according to media reports.
Three members of a local electoral commission were also taken into custody during the night.
The police also responded to several anonymous bomb threats, which reportedly turned out to be false. Gurgen Simonyan, leader of the small Meritocratic Party of Armenia, said on television that they election may have to be repeated due to the many violations.
High turnout across the country
Polling stations across the country opened at 8 am (0400 GMT). Turnover was brisk, according to a dpa reporter.
Nearly 49% of voters had cast their ballots by 5 pm, the electoral commission said. This suggests a higher turnout than in the last election in 2021, when just above 49% of voters cast their ballots by the end of the vote in the South Caucasus republic.
Among those who voted in the morning was Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, who is seeking a third term in office.
“Democracy always works in favour of regional and international cooperation and is an instrument for peace in the region,” Pashinyan said.
Geopolitical tensions
Pashinyan is working on a peace treaty with Azerbaijan, three years after Armenia lost a military conflict with its neighbour over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh.
More than 100,000 ethnic Armenians were forced to flee following Azerbaijan’s violent conquest of the territory, with the opposition accusing Pashinyan of betraying the national interest.
The prime minister has received backing from the US government under President Donald Trump. Secretary of State Marco Rubio made a special stopover in Yerevan to sign a bilateral cooperation agreement.
The government, in turn, has accused parts of the opposition of acting on behalf of the Kremlin and stressed the importance of peace in the region.
Tensions between Russia and Armenia have grown sharply in recent months over Yerevan’s pursuit of closer ties with the European Union. Relations with Russia are now the defining issue of the election.
Moscow has imposed import bans on Armenian products and threatened to terminate a favourable gas supply contract.
An Armenian government official accused Moscow of attempted vote-buying, alleging that Armenians living in Russia had been flown home specifically to vote for pro-Russian parties in exchange for payment.
The authorities have opened several criminal investigations, but the government has not presented any concrete evidence to support the allegations.
Farah Karimi, head of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) election observation mission, spoke of a “worrying polarization of the election campaign.”
She told dpa it had been marked by accusations and insults.
FILE PHOTO – Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, speaks during a meeting at the Prime Minister’s official residence on Republic Square. (is associated with: «Arrests and bomb threats overshadow Armenian election») Bernd von Jutrczenka/dpa