Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian claimed to be “destroying” Armenia’s main opposition groups on Monday after his party swept nationwide local elections marked by a lack of opposition interest.
The Civil Contract party won outright in 17 of the 19 communities and finished second behind pro-government blocs in the two others on Sunday.
The main opposition Strong Armenia alliance ran only in a community comprising the northern town of Stepanavan and surrounding villages. It came in third with about 20 percent of the vote. Civil Contract, the runner-up, trailed a bloc led by Stepanavan’s incumbent pro-government mayor, Armen Grigorian.
Grigorian fell short of an absolute majority in the local council and was expected to team up with Pashinian’s party. Strong Armenia’s parliamentary leader, Narek Karapetian, put a brave face on its performance.
“In the places where we participated, the Civil Contract party received a record-low percentage -- arguably the lowest percentage -- of votes,” he said.
Former President Robert Kocharian’s Hayastan alliance, the second opposition force represented in the Armenian parliament, did not participate in the local elections at all. One of its key components, the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun) party, separately fielded candidates in four communities. Dashnaktsutyun polled between 10 and 15 percent of the vote there. Its leader, Ishkhan Saghatelian, praised this performance.
Other senior members of the bloc led by Karapetian’s billionaire uncle Samvel Karapetian said the election result was greatly influenced by the pre-election arrests of over two dozen Strong Armenia activists and supporters, including its mayoral candidate. They are prosecuted on vote-buying charged rejected by the local as politically motivated.
Several other election candidates were detained in other communities ahead of the elections held there. Strong Armenia, Hayastan and other opposition groups claimed that the arrests are part of a broader government campaign of intimidation and obstruction of the opposition.
In the run-up to the polls, they accused the Armenian authorities of bullying many of their local activists and other potential candidates. Dozens of them dropped out of the races.
Meanwhile, Pashinian touted the local election sweep as another milestone in the “destruction” of his political foes.
“In a word: the [foreign] spy forces -- that three-headed or four-headed party of war -- must be destroyed,” he said. “And the results of the local self-government elections show that this has taken place with the help and support of the citizens of Armenia.”
Opposition leaders insisted, meanwhile, that they will keep striving to oust Pashinian and expect far more serious challenges to his rule in the months ahead.
“We will continue our daily struggle toward this end, without ever backing down,” said Dashnaktsutyun leader Ishkhan Saghatelian.