OSCE: Pashinyan threatened the opposition before the elections

The election campaign in Armenia was conducted with systematic pressure on the opposition, including arrests and detentions of activists, said Farah Karimi, special coordinator of the OSCE short-term observation mission, on June 8. During the campaign, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan publicly threatened opposition candidates with investigations and the nationalization of their companies, and used offensive language, including against Armenian refugees. All the details are in the Izvestia article.

Threats and insults from Pashinyan

At a number of pre-election events, Pashinyan used offensive and inflammatory language, including against displaced Armenian refugees.

"In some cases, the Prime Minister publicly threatened opposition candidates with investigations and the nationalization of their companies," the report says on the OSCE website.

At the same time, some nationalization procedures were initiated even before the official launch of the campaign. The report also notes that online campaigning was confrontational and divisive, with frequent personal attacks between candidates, with provocative rhetoric mainly coming from the prime minister.

Pressure on state employees and the state apparatus

Observers were seriously concerned about the pressure on government officials, who were forced to participate in meetings of the ruling party, Karimi said.

"The pressure on government officials to involve them in events organized by the ruling party, as well as all social and economic events, is causing great concern about freedoms during the pre—election period," she said.

There have been cases of administrative pressure on civil servants, as well as "manipulative materials inciting hostility" in the media.

Other violations and statements by opposition leaders

The election campaign was "accompanied by divisive rhetoric and accusations of voter bribery, as well as accusations of other election violations." On June 8, the leader of the Strong Armenia party, Samvel Karapetyan, told Izvestia correspondent Alexei Poltoranin about possible fraud and pressure on the opposition in the parliamentary elections. According to Karapetyan, about 700 people from his party have been arrested, 80 of them have already been sent to prison "for unknown reasons." He called it impossible to consider these elections democratic.

Arman Abovyan, a member of the political council of the Prosperous Armenia party, told Izvestia that all arrests and intimidation occur at the initiative of Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. He noted that the Prime Minister declared himself the winner even before 20% of the votes had been counted.

"His (Pashinyan's.— Ed.) Do you know what your favorite word is? Bring them to their knees, destroy them, spray them, pulverize them, put them in jail. Yesterday at 2 a.m., when even 20% had not been counted yet, he came out and declared himself the winner. The second promise he made was to throw all the oppositionists in jail. This is some kind of nonsense," Abovyan added.

The politician pointed out that Pashinyan behaves this way because he has permissiveness from Europe, the United States, Azerbaijan and Turkey. He also added that the recount of votes is being carried out due to an obvious attempt by the authorities to oust the opposing political force from parliament. According to him, the presence of members of the Prosperous Armenia party will limit the power of the current government and "tie its hands." Abovyan stressed that they will not be able to make constitutional decisions.

In addition, the Armenia bloc of former President Robert Kocharyan published a statement on Facebook (banned in Russia, owned by Meta, a company recognized as extremist in Russia), in which he noted that he intends to challenge the results of the parliamentary elections. They also added that the elections in Armenia were held amid widespread pressure from the authorities and arrests of the opposition.

Reaction and rejection of evaluation

At the same time, the OSCE representatives stressed that the voting itself was "generally peaceful and without incident," and the observers highly appreciated the efforts of Armenian voters at 1,043 polling stations. However, when asked directly whether the elections could be considered "free and fair," Farah Karimi replied that the observers were only providing facts, and the assessment should be given by the citizens of Armenia.

Pashinyan's party (Civil Contract) won 49.81% of the vote, the Strong Armenia bloc - 23.28%, the Armenia Alliance - 9.93%. Thus, the ruling party will receive the majority in parliament necessary for the formation of a government, thanks to quotas for national minorities and the redistribution of votes of parties that did not enter parliament.