Armenia Holds Parliamentary Election as Government Seeks Stronger Mandate

m. m. local time. Two political blocs and 17 parties are competing for seats in the 101-member National Assembly, where parties need at least 4 percent of the vote and blocs need 8 percent to win representation. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan cast his ballot and said Armenia would continue strengthening its independence, statehood, democracy and rule of law.

He added that the European Union is Armenia's main partner in democratic reform and that relations with Russia remain institutional and based on mutual respect.

Pashinyan has framed the election as a choice between lasting peace with Azerbaijan or a return to conflict. An agreement signed last August at the White House followed years of on-and-off fighting that ended in 2023 when Azerbaijani forces took control of Nagorno-Karabakh and most of its Armenian population fled.

Supporters point to economic gains under his leadership, including a doubling of gross domestic product per capita since 2018. One voter at a rally in Yerevan told Reuters she liked how Armenia has been growing.

The main opposition includes the Strong Armenia party, formed last year by Russian-Armenian billionaire Samvel Karapetyan, who is under house arrest on coup-plotting charges. The party wants to maintain close ties with Russia, a key energy supplier and export market.

Russian officials have imposed recent restrictions on Armenian exports, and President Vladimir Putin has made statements comparing Armenia's path to Ukraine's. A day before the vote, investigators issued six arrest warrants for Strong Armenia members on vote-buying charges.

Maria Titizian, editor-in-chief of EVN Report, told Al Jazeera that voters are focused on how Armenia should guarantee security after the assumptions of its post-Soviet security architecture were shaken, and whether it should deepen ties with Europe and the United States.