Statement on Early Parliamentary Elections in Armenia as delivered by Ambassador Armen Papikyan at the 1321st meeting of the OSCE Permanent Council

24 June, 2021

Madame Chairperson,

The delegation of Armenia would like to inform the Permanent Council about the preliminary results of the early parliamentary elections, which took place in Armenia on 20 June 2021.

During these elections, 21 political parties and 4 alliances contested the right to be represented in the National Assembly of Armenia and to form a government. 49,26% of Armenian citizens eligible to vote casted their ballots. On election day, all polling stations were equipped with voting authentication devices.

The elections were observed by a number of international and local observers. In total, there were about 500 long-term and short term observers deployed across the country, including from the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly (OSCE PA), the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), as well as the Inter-Parliamentary Assembly of the Commonwealth of Independent States and the CSTO. In addition, there were also 8,749 local observers monitoring the elections. The Armenian government has put in place certain measures in connection with the COVID-19 pandemic to facilitate the work and smooth operation of the observation missions.

Pending the official announcement of the final results of voting by the Central Electoral Commission, according to preliminary results, one political party and two alliances, namely the ruling “Civil Contract” party with 53.96 % of votes, the “Armenia” alliance with 21.06 % of votes and “My Honour” alliance with 5.23 % of votes won seats in the Armenian parliament. It is important to note that the Electoral Code also provides for up to four additional reserved seats in parliament, one for each of the four largest national minorities of Armenia - Yezidis, Russians, Assyrians and Kurds.

The International Election Observation Mission has already issued a Statement of the Preliminary Findings and Conclusions with a positive assessment, which stated that fundamental freedoms and rights were generally respected, and contestants were able to campaign freely, voters were provided with a broad range of options. Freedom of expression guaranteed by the Constitution was respected and international observers noted overall improvements in this respect since 2018. General satisfaction was also expressed for the work of the Central Electoral Commission, which was assessed as transparent, collegial and professionally administered, meeting all legal deadlines, despite the short preparation time.

Madame Chairperson,

In closing, I should like to thank our colleagues from the OSCE/ODIHR, the OSCE PA, other international organisations and all those participating States who seconded their representatives to observe the early parliamentary elections in Armenia, despite the short notice. Regardless of the multitude of serious security challenges facing Armenia today, the Armenian government is determined to advance its comprehensive reform agenda based on the protection and promotion of the values of democracy, human rights and fundamental freedoms. To this end, we will continue our close co-operation with all our international partners, including the OSCE.

Thank you.

MFA RA
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