Ex-justice minister urges Armenian opposition to prioritize unity after election results

Former Armenian Justice Minister and former National Assembly Vice Speaker Arpine Hovhannisyan on Monday urged opposition forces to focus on maintaining political cohesion within their parliamentary ranks following preliminary results from Sunday's parliamentary elections.

The appeal came after Armenia's Central Electoral Commission released early results indicating that the Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP) failed to clear the electoral threshold and will not be represented in the next National Assembly.

According to the preliminary figures, the ruling Civil Contract party is expected to secure 64 seats in parliament, while the Strong Armenia alliance would hold 29 seats and the Hayastan alliance 12 seats. The distribution reflects the application of electoral formulas, including mandates reserved for national minorities and the redistribution of votes cast for parties that did not enter parliament.

The projected outcome would allow Civil Contract to form a government and elect a prime minister without coalition partners. The party would also command the three-fifths majority required to pass constitutional laws and appoint several senior state officials.

However, Civil Contract would remain short of the two-thirds supermajority required to amend Armenia's Constitution, lacking six votes to reach that threshold.

In a social media post, Hovhannisyan cautioned opposition leaders against rushing to justify decisions on whether to take up parliament seats, arguing that a more significant challenge lies ahead.

"We all remember similar statements after previous elections," she wrote. "We also remember who later supported the Civil Contract party during parliamentary votes."

Hovhannisyan said opposition parties should instead concentrate on the strength of their electoral lists and the political reliability of lawmakers entering parliament.

"The issue is not only today's distribution of mandates," she wrote. "The issue is whether those mandates and votes will maintain their political affiliation and political position in the future."

Hovhannisyan also stressed that the National Assembly would be constituted regardless of whether opposition parties accepted their mandates, adding that any seats left vacant would not be redistributed to other political groups.