YEREVAN, June 23. /ARKA/. During a press briefing on Wednesday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova took a question about what Russia expects from Armenia after the snap parliamentary elections and within the framework of its commitments to the South Caucasus.
“I would like to remind that a new government is being formed in Armenia in accordance with the legislation of that country. Therefore, we need to wait until the process is completed,” Zakharova said.
She recalled that the Foreign Ministry has already made an official comment on the results of the early parliamentary elections in Armenia, saying that Russia expects the results of the electoral process to contribute to the progressive development of Armenia, further strengthening of Russian-Armenian relations, and also to ensuring peace, security and stability in the entire South Caucasus region, primarily in terms of the full implementation of the trilateral statements of the leaders of Azerbaijan, Armenia and Russia of November 9, 2020 and January 11, 2021.
According to the official results announced by the Central Election Commission (CEC) on Monday morning, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s Civil Contract party won almost 54 percent of the vote and will retain a two-thirds majority in the Armenian parliament.
Ex-president Robert Kocharyan’s Armenia bloc came in a distant second with 21 percent, followed by the opposition Pativ Unem alliance led by another ex-president, Serzh Sargsyan which got 5.2 percent.
Although Pativ Unem failed to clear the 7 percent threshold it will have parliament seats because Armenian law stipulates that at least three political forces must be represented in the National Assembly.
Kocharyan’s bloc said on Monday that it will ask Armenia’s Constitutional Court to overturn the official results of Sunday’s parliamentary elections. It claimed that the results are “extremely dubious.” “We have serious grounds to consider these elections illegitimate,” it said in a statement.