Samvel Karapetyan insists on Pashinyan's ouster after contested elections

Armenian opposition leader and businessman Samvel Karapetyan said on Friday that his bloc's primary objective is not whether to take seats in the parliament but to remove Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan from power following Sunday’s parliamentary elections.

Speaking to reporters outside a courthouse, Karapetyan, the prime ministerial candidate of the Strong Armenia alliance, rejected the election results and alleged widespread irregularities.

“Neither we nor Nikol Pashinyan has won,” Karapetyan said. “Armenia needs a legitimate government, and he failed to provide one.”

Karapetyan argued that the election process was fundamentally flawed, claiming the vote had been falsified and conducted under conditions of intimidation.

“Elections are not held under terror,” he said. “Our regional coordinators have been detained. Some 780 people have been arrested.”

The opposition alliance has already filed complaints with Armenia’s Central Electoral Commission and plans to appeal to the Constitutional Court, Karapetyan said.

According to him, the bloc is seeking the annulment of the election results and a second round of voting.

“We have submitted two demands: to invalidate the election and to schedule a second round,” Karapetyan said. “If he is confident that he has won, then it would be more appropriate to hold a second round.”

Asked whether the alliance would take up parliament seats, Karapetyan said it was too early to make such a decision and emphasized that the opposition’s focus remains on Pashinyan's ouster.

“The issue is not whether to go to parliament or not,” he said. “It's about Pashinyan's removal from office. If we determine that we can remove Pashinyan more quickly through parliament, we will take up parliament seats. If we decide that we can achieve that through street protests, we will go for it.”