Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has secured a decisive victory in parliamentary elections, strengthening his drive to anchor the South Caucasus country to the European Union and loosen its long dependence on Russia.
His Civil Contract party took 49.81 per cent of the vote in the June 7 ballot, according to the final count published by Armenia’s Central Electoral Commission once all 2,005 polling stations had reported. The result puts the party on course for a renewed majority in the 101-seat National Assembly.
The pro-Russian Strong Armenia alliance, led by Russia-based businessman Samvel Karapetyan, finished a distant second on 23.29 per cent. Former president Robert Kocharyan’s Armenia bloc and the Prosperous Armenia party were the only other forces to clear the entry threshold.
Turnout reached 58.97 per cent, up nearly 10 percentage points on the last election. Pashinyan called the result a historic moment and said he intended to travel to Moscow, Washington and Brussels in its wake.
The vote was widely cast as a referendum on Pashinyan’s westward turn. His government adopted a law in March 2025 launching the process of EU accession, and Yerevan in May hosted the first bilateral Armenia-EU summit alongside a European Political Community gathering attended by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
That pivot drew open hostility from Moscow, which in the weeks before the vote recalled its ambassador, halted several Armenian food imports and warned that favourable energy terms could be withdrawn. Reuters, citing Western intelligence officials, reported that Russia had mounted covert efforts to undermine Pashinyan, including through disinformation.
Washington backed the incumbent. United States President Donald Trump endorsed Pashinyan days before the vote.
The election was the first held on schedule since 2017. It came after Armenia’s 2023 military defeat by Azerbaijan and the displacement of Nagorno-Karabakh’s ethnic Armenians, with a fragile peace process still to be sealed.
