Residents of Vagharshapat, better known to many as Etchmiadzin, went to the polls on Sunday to elect a 33-member city council. The vote was particularly important given that it could highlight the political mood in the country ahead of next year’s parliamentary elections. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s popularity has been in decline for several years now. He is only fortunate that the opposition has hardly fared better even when taken as a collective whole. 

The first results, posted from the small village of Lernamerdz, reported a landslide victory for Pashinyan with 160 votes. The nearest rival, the Victory Alliance received only 11. It was ironic. The last time I visited Lernamerdz, population around 400, was to work on a story on what had become known as the last socialist village in Armenia, complete with a large shiny bust of Lenin in the centre. Many of its residents still lament the loss of the former Soviet Union and await its return.

 

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With the final results from the 16 November vote now known, Pashinyan can breathe more easily. Argishti Mekhakyan scored a clear victory for Civil Contract with 48.5 percent. Second was the opposition Victory Alliance that includes the pro-Kocharyan opposition Armenian Revolutionary Federation – Dashnaktsutyun (ARF-D) with 31.9 percent. Naturally, there were accusations of electoral code violations but not sufficiently enough to meaningfully influence the result.

 

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True, there are still more than six months left until parliamentary elections but any developments still look most likely to favour the incumbent, especially when it comes to further progress on normalising relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan ahead of a possible peace deal. The European Political Community (EPC) summit in Yerevan scheduled for just as the official pre-election campaign period kicks off next May will also greatly benefit the premiere.

The full piece is available here.