2021 Armenian parliamentary election

After six weeks of war with Azerbaijan, on 9 November 2020 prime minister Nikol Pashinyan, president of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and Russian president Vladimir Putin reached and signed a ceasefire agreement.^[5] Following the announcement of this deal, violent protests erupted in Yerevan. The National Assembly was stormed and its speaker Ararat Mirzoyan was beaten by an angry mob.

Pashinyan faced continuous calls for his resignation and mass rallies calling for him to step down.^[6] On 25 February 2021 the Chief of the General Staff of the Armenian Armed Forces Onik Gasparyan and more than 40 other top-ranking generals demanded Pashinyan's resignation, which Pashinyan described as a coup attempt, causing a political crisis that ended with Gasparyan's dismissal.^[7]

On 25 April 2021 Pashinyan announced his formal resignation, prompting the dissolution of the National Assembly and the call for snap elections on 20 June of that year.^[8]

The members of the unicameral National Assembly were elected by party-list proportional representation. The number of seats was set at a minimum of 101, which could rise when allocation of additional seats is required. Seats were allocated using the d'Hondt method with an election threshold of 5% for parties and 7% for multi-party alliances.^[9][10] However, a minimum of three political groups would be awarded seats enter parliament regardless of the performance of the third-best performing party or alliance.^[11]

Four seats were reserved for national minorities (Assyrians, Kurds, Russians and Yazidis), with parties having separate lists for the four groups.^[10] A gender quota required any top section of a party list to include at least 33% candidates of each gender.^[12]

If a party received a majority of the vote but wins less than 54% of the seats, they would be awarded additional seats to give them 54% of the total. If one party won over two-thirds of the seats, the losing parties which passed the electoral threshold would be given extra seats reducing the share of seats of the winning party to two-thirds. If a government is not formed within six days of the preliminary results being released, a run-off round between the top two parties must be held on the 28th day. The party that won the run-off would be given the additional seats required for a 54% majority, with all seats allocated in the first round preserved.^[10]

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the Electoral Code did not provide for mail-in voting or early voting.^[13]

Participating parties and alliances were required to submit applications with all supporting documentation by 18:00 on 26 May. The electoral lists of the political parties and alliances of parties were registered by 31 May.^[14]

The official election campaign took place from 7 to 18 June.^[15] Voting took place on 20 June from 8am to 8pm.^[16]

Four alliances and 23 parties submitted documents to the Central Electoral Commission (CEC) in order to register for the elections.^[17] This is a significant increase in the number of parties competing, as only nine parties and two alliances had competed in the parliamentary elections held two years earlier.^[18] Several of the parties and all of the alliances were established in 2020 or 2021, following Armenia's defeat in the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war. In total, four alliances and 23 parties participated in the election.^[19]

Notes:

• ^aRegistered as an alliance, implying 7% election threshold
• ^bDiverse estimates.
• ^cYes/No - as claimed; other info - as estimated.
• ^d5% for parties and 7% for registered alliances.
• ^ewas removed from election list after failing to prove residency in Armenia^[25]

Eight monitoring missions, including from the OSCE/ODIHR and the CIS registered to observe the elections.^[43] A total of 250 short-term observers arrived from the ODHIR^[44] and 70 observers from various CIS countries, monitored the elections.^[45]

There were 8 monitoring missions in the 2018 parliamentary elections^[46] and 6 missions in the 2017 parliamentary elections.^[47]

Due to the alignment of the election procedures with the OSCE recommendations, Freedom House reclassified Armenia as an electoral democracy.^[48][49]

In the evening of 20 June Tigran Mukuchyan, head of the Central Electoral Commission, announced the preliminary results; Pashinyan's Civil Contract party was leading with 58.5 percent of the vote and 72 seats of the National Assembly, 16 less than in 2018, while former president Robert Kocharyan's Armenia Alliance had 18.8 percent with 27 seats.^[11] The third political force was I Have Honor Alliance, with 5.23 percent and 6 seats.^{[11][note 1]}

Acting prime minister Nikol Pashinyan claimed victory in the snap election but moments later Kocharyan's alliance rejected the outcome, saying it would not recognize the results until alleged voting irregularities were addressed. Meanwhile, Tigran Mukuchyan stated "On the whole, the election was conducted in accordance with the country's legislation."^[50]

President Armen Sarkissian called on his compatriots to remain peaceful, because it would be unacceptable to "overstep political and moral boundaries, escalate the situation and foment hatred and enmity".^[11]

On 21 June the Central Electoral Commission confirmed the results.^[51]

Amid speculation that the elected Armenia Alliance deputies would not accept the position in an attempt to boycott parliament, on 22 June Kocharyan stated in an interview that he believed they should accept it but "I don't see myself in the parliament because I am more of an executive". At the same time, he affirmed that the alliance would soon submit to the Constitutional Court a report proving the existence of violations of the electoral procedure. He also acknowledged that the cause of his defeat could be the lack of work during the campaign in rural areas.^[52]

More information Party, Votes ...

Party		Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	Civil Contract	688,761	53.95	71	–11
	Armenia Alliance	269,481	21.11	29	New
	I Have Honor Alliance	66,650	5.22	7	New
	Prosperous Armenia	50,444	3.95	0	–26
	Hanrapetutyun Party	38,758	3.04	0	0
	Armenian National Congress	19,691	1.54	0	0
	Shirinyan-Babajanyan Alliance of Democrats	19,212	1.50	0	0
	National Democratic Pole	18,976	1.49	0	New
	Bright Armenia	15,591	1.22	0	–18
	5165 National Conservative Movement Party	15,549	1.22	0	New
	Liberal Party	14,936	1.17	0	New
	Homeland of Armenians Party	13,130	1.03	0	New
	Armenia is Our Home	12,149	0.95	0	New
	Democratic Party of Armenia	5,020	0.39	0	0
	Awakening National Christian Party	4,619	0.36	0	New
	Free Homeland Alliance	4,119	0.32	0	New
	Sovereign Armenia Party	3,915	0.31	0	New
	Fair Armenia Party	3,914	0.31	0	New
	Citizen's Decision	3,775	0.30	0	0
	European Party of Armenia	2,440	0.19	0	New
	Freedom Party	1,844	0.14	0	0
	Rise Party	1,233	0.10	0	New
	United Homeland Party	964	0.08	0	New
	All-Armenian National Statehood Party	803	0.06	0	New
	National Agenda Party	719	0.06	0	New
Total		1,276,693	100.00	107	–25
Valid votes		1,276,693	99.63
Invalid/blank votes		4,682	0.37
Total votes		1,281,375	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		2,595,334	49.37
Source: news.am, CEC, Hetq

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International

• Council of Europe: The Council of Europe Secretary General Marija Pejčinović Burić sent a congratulatory message to Nikol Pashinyan on the successful conduct of the parliamentary elections and confirmed that the elections were generally well organized. The statement further read, "I reaffirm the readiness of the Council of Europe to continue to support Armenia in the reform process, based on the standards of human rights, democracy and the rule of law."^[53]
• European Union: President of the European Council, Charles Michel, said "warm congratulations to Nikol Pashinyan on elections victory. The EU stands by Armenia in support of deepening reforms. We are also ready to further support regional stabilisation and comprehensive conflict settlement."^[54]
• Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe: OSCE said in a statement that the elections were "competitive and generally well-managed within a short timeframe." The OSCE observers noted that they were "characterized by intense polarization and marred by increasingly inflammatory rhetoric among key contestants" but assessed the election day and the vote count "positively overall."^[4]
• United States: The United States Department of State issued a press statement congratulating the Armenian people and acknowledging that "voters' human rights and fundamental freedoms were generally respected, contestants were able to campaign freely, and that ODIHR assessed election-day vote counting as positive." Also called for "respect the results of these elections once certified, employ the legal election grievance process to address issues of concern, and avoid political retaliation."^[55]
• Canada: The Canadian Foreign Ministry congratulated Armenian authorities on concluding successful parliamentary elections. "We look forward to collaborating with our Armenian partners to continue our efforts to promote democracy in the country as well as a resolution of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict", the statement read.^[56]
• Russia: Kremlin Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov said that Pashinyan won a "convincing victory."^[57]

Armenia and Diaspora

• The Future Armenian public initiative congratulated the citizens of Armenia on concluding snap parliamentary elections during difficult times for the country, and expressed a hope that "the representatives of the elected parties will serve by working hard to ensure solidarity across all Armenians, overcoming unprecedented challenges to strengthen the state and nation".^[58]

• Elections in Armenia
• List of political parties in Armenia
• Programs of political parties in Armenia