Parliamentary elections are held in Armenia amid pressure on the opposition

Parliamentary elections have begun in Armenia, and 18 political forces are participating in them. The main rivals are the ruling Civil Contract party, which promotes the country's turn towards the EU, and the opposition Strong Armenia, which advocates strong relations with Russia. Even before the start, these elections became one of the most scandalous in history due to the massive harassment of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's rivals. Alexey Poltoranin, a correspondent for Izvestia, spoke about the situation with the elections on June 7.

"The elections in Armenia do not just distribute the distribution of seats in parliament, they dictate what course the country will take in the coming years. The current Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan is a supporter of the pro—Western path. His rivals are for economic change and friendship with Russia," he said.

Voters decide which way Armenia will turn from 08:00 (07:00 Moscow time) local time, when polling stations opened. There is no electronic voting here, only a personal presence. After a large-scale wave of pressure, supporters of opposition parties are monitoring to ensure that the voters are not provoked and the result is not tampered with.

One of the voters, Anahit Simonyan, told Poltoranin that she had voted for her homeland.

"The most important thing is to live in peace, there was no war, people worked like everyone else," added voter Robert Matynyan.

The current government is being opposed by several opposition blocs in these elections, which have faced unprecedented repression from Pashinyan during this campaign — searches, arrests, and harassment. The prime minister's main competitor is businessman Samvel Karapetyan, the leader of Strong Armenia, who has been under house arrest for a long time. Before the elections, the CEC wanted to completely revoke the party's registration and gave the go-ahead to the Prosecutor General's Office to prosecute six supporters of the party.

Before the elections, Prime Minister Pashinyan used everything to knock out those who disagree with his policies from the race — administrative resources, connections. Two more opposition forces were hit, Armenia, the bloc of former President Robert Kocharian, and Prosperous Armenia by Gagik Tsarukyan.

"What is happening, especially in the last few days, against the background of how Pashinyan did not win the debate, what is happening against the opposition is classic repression. Paradoxical as it may sound, we are dealing in Armenia with probably the most counterrevolutionary government that could exist," said political analyst Beniamin Matevosyan.

Such aggression on the part of Pashinyan is not only a fear of losing, but also a rapid desire to continue the path of European integration after the elections. In 2025, a law on the accession process was signed in Armenia.

"In fact, they are trying to deceive the citizens of Armenia with a ghostly European Union, in fact, there is a possibility of losing this entire Russian market, this huge trade turnover between the countries, and in fact making ordinary people who are engaged in agriculture simply bankrupt," political analyst Tigran Kocharyan believes.

So far, Pashinyan is actually trying to sit on two chairs.: do not lose touch with the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) and please the European one. The oppositionists advocate staying in the EAEU, Armenia has been in it for 11 years, and over the years the country's economy has almost tripled.

"Armenia receives natural gas and energy resources mainly from the Russian Federation. If we go West, if we go to the European Union, it automatically means that Armenia loses the opportunity to buy cheap Russian gas at a price of 177 dollars per thousand cubic meters and will have to buy gas at European prices," said Grigor Balasanyan, Associate professor of the Department of International Relations and Diplomacy at Yerevan State University.

The winner needs to overcome the 50% threshold, the minimum threshold for parties is 4%, for alliances of parties — 8%, 10% — for blocs. The first data may appear late in the evening.

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On June 6, former Defense Minister Arshak Karapetyan pointed out that not only representatives of the opposition, but also individual citizens are facing strong political pressure in the republic.

Alexey Shevtsov, Deputy Secretary of the Russian Security Council, said on the same day that threats by the Armenian authorities to restrict citizens' voting rights were unacceptable. On the same day, it was reported that on the day of silence before the parliamentary elections in Armenia, the internal political situation escalated. According to Aram Vardevanyan, a lawyer and representative of the Strong Armenia party, there are no legal grounds for not allowing the Strong Armenia bloc to participate in the elections and canceling its registration.