Kocharyan says parliamentary election was not legitimate, plans court challenge

Former Armenian President Robert Kocharyan claims the country's June 7 parliamentary election cannot be considered legitimate, citing allegations of foreign interference, misuse of state resources, pressure on public employees and a crackdown on opposition figures.

In an interview to several media outlets on Friday, Kocharyan, who led the opposition Hayastan alliance in the election, said the scale of outside support for the ruling Civil Contract party was unprecedented and could have influenced the outcome of the vote.

"I have extensive experience in politics, and nothing like this has ever happened before," Kocharyan said. He pointed to statements and actions by foreign leaders and officials, including public endorsements and interventions by senior U.S. and European figures. "This alone is enough to conclude that the interference was significant enough to have affected the final results."

Kocharyan also accused the government of using public funds to sway voters during the campaign. He specifically criticized pension increases and other spending measures that he said had not been included in the state budget, describing them as a form of "budgetary bribery" during the election period.

In addition, he alleged widespread pressure on state employees and an unprecedented wave of arrests, detentions and criminal investigations targeting opposition politicians and activists.

"The purpose of these actions was to undermine and disrupt the work of opposition campaign headquarters," Kocharyan said, arguing that the measures had a direct impact on the election outcome.

Taken together, the violations mean the election "cannot be considered legitimate," he stated.

Kocharyan said his alliance plans to challenge the election results before Armenia's Constitutional Court, while acknowledging that he has little expectation the appeal will succeed.

"I do not have high expectations regarding the outcome, but we must go through this process and document everything that happened before and during the election," he said.

The former president also criticized the Central Electoral Commission, accusing it of acting beyond its authority and raising concerns about its impartiality. He argued that several decisions taken by the commission after the vote had further fueled doubts about the credibility of the electoral process.

Asked about the opposition's next steps, Kocharyan said consultations were underway among opposition forces and that joint actions could follow.

"There is now a new and quite interesting opportunity for political struggle," he said, referring to the composition of the new parliament and the increased representation of opposition forces.

Kocharyan argued that the government's legitimacy would remain under scrutiny and said opposition parties had expanded their support base compared with previous elections.