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Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has declared victory in the snap parliamentary elections he called in a bid to defuse a political crisis after the disastrous war with Azerbaijan last year.
But the electoral alliance of its biggest rival, former President Robert Kocharian, quickly challenged the results of the vote and alleged election fraud.
The vote is seen as a two-horse race, with Pashinyan, 46, and Kocharyan, 66, drawing huge crowds in the run-up to the polls.
Sunday’s preliminary poll results showed Pashinyan’s party leading with 57% of the vote, far ahead of Kocharyan’s alliance with 19%.
Official results based on votes from more than 60% of the constituencies counted showed another party receiving more than 5% of the votes needed to secure seats in Parliament.
Pashinyan declared early Monday that “the people of Armenia have given our civil contract party the mandate to lead the country and personally to lead the country as prime minister.”
“We already know that we won a convincing victory in the elections and we will have a convincing majority in parliament,” he added, urging his supporters to attend in Yerevan’s main square on Monday evening.
Kocharyan’s electoral bloc said it would not recognize Pashinyan’s quick claim to victory, which came when only 30% of the electoral districts were counted.
“Hundreds of signals from polling stations attest to systematic and planned fraud, which is a serious cause of mistrust,” the bloc said in a statement, adding that it would not “admit” the results until the “violations” were examined.
Earlier on Sunday evening, the attorney general’s office said it had received 319 reports of abuse. She said she has opened six criminal investigations, all of them relating to bribery during the election campaign.
The vote was followed by Soviet-era Russia, arch-enemy Azerbaijan and Turkey, which backed Azerbaijan in the six-week war over the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh last year.
Despite the stifling heat, nearly 50% of about 2.6 million eligible voters cast their ballots, election officials said. Some observers said that the turnout in the southern Caucasus country, which has a population of three million people, was higher than expected.
During a campaign marred by polarizing rhetoric, Pashinyan said he expected his party to receive 60% of the vote. Election officials said the voting was conducted in accordance with Armenian legislation.
Kocharian himself was accused of rigging a presidential election in favor of his chosen ally and of leading a deadly crackdown on protesters in 2008.
Armenia won international acclaim for holding its first free and fair vote under Pashinyan in 2018.
On the streets of Yerevan, Armenians expressed conflicting opinions about Pashinyan. Voter Anahit Sargsyan said the prime minister, who led peaceful protests against corrupt elites in 2018, deserved another chance. She said she feared the return of the old guard whom she accused of looting the country.
“I voted against going back to the old ways,” said the 63-year-old former teacher.
Another voter, Vardan Hovhannisyan, said he voted for Kocharyan, who calls Russian President Vladimir Putin his friend.
“I voted for secure borders, solidarity in society, the return of our prisoners of war, the welfare of the wounded, and a strong army,” said the 41-year-old musician.
Critics blame Pashinyan for ceding land in and around Karabakh to Azerbaijan in a humiliating armistice agreement, and accuse him of failing to implement reforms.
Pashinyan said he should have agreed to the peace agreement brokered by Moscow with Azerbaijan in order to prevent further casualties and territorial losses.
More than 6,500 people were killed in the war, according to the latest official figures from Armenia and Azerbaijan.
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