In Armenia, opening of polling stations for high-risk early legislative elections

Published on : 06/20/2021 – 07:14

The Armenians vote, Sunday, June 20, during early legislative risky for the Prime Minister and which could trigger protests after a vehement campaign against the backdrop of a recent military defeat.

The ex-journalist Nikol Pachinian, 46, who became head of government in 2018 thanks to a peaceful revolution against the old corrupt elites, faces the ex-president Robert Kotcharian, 66, who accuses his rival of incompetence and arises as an experienced leader.

Nikol Pashinian’s record popularity collapsed after Armenia was routed in a war against neighboring Azerbaijan in the fall of 2020. After six weeks of fighting that claimed more than 6,500 lives, Yerevan had to give in. important territories that it had controlled since a first conflict in the 1990s for the control of Nagorno Karabakh, a secessionist Azerbaijani region mainly populated by Armenians.

Perceived as a national humiliation, this defeat sparked a political crisis in Armenia, forcing Nikol Pachinian to call early legislative elections in the hope of lowering tension and strengthening his legitimacy.

Despite the reforms carried out by the Prime Minister, many of his former supporters let go after the conflict in Nagorno Karabakh and turned to his opponents, who were linked to the old elites accused of having plundered the country.

The threat of unrest

Faced with the risk of an electoral defeat or a mixed score, Nikol Pachinian urged his compatriots to vote to give him a “mandate of steel”. “The Armenians see that there are forces which provoke political confrontations, a civil war”, he again launched Thursday.

In the last days of the campaign, the two rivals staged a show of force, each bringing together around 20,000 supporters in the central square of Yerevan, the capital of this poor and mountainous country.

“The government is not able to solve our current problems”, launched Friday in front of his supporters Robert Kotcharian, suspected of corruption by his detractors after having directed this ex-Soviet republic from 1998 to 2008.

“We are a team which, unlike the current political administration, has experience, knowledge, strength and will,” he said, warning against attempts to “steal our voice”.

The electoral campaign having shown a deep division between the two main camps, many observers expect protests, even riots after the poll.

President Armen Sarkissian ruled inadmissible “to incite hatred and enmity” and called on his compatriots to vote “fairly and freely”. About 2.6 million Armenian voters are called to the polls to elect at least 101 deputies for five years by proportional representation. Open at 04:00 GMT, the polling stations will close 12 hours later.

If no majority or majority coalition emerges on Sunday, a second round will have to be organized on July 18 between the two parties having obtained the best score.

With AFP