Snap vote: Armenian PM’s bloc wins polls

YEREVAN: Armenia’s acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has won a landslide victory in snap parliamentary elections, results showed on Monday, cementing his authority months after he swept to power in a peaceful revolution.

Pashinyan, a 43-year-old former journalist, has pledged to root out endemic corruption and address widespread poverty in the impoverished landlocked ex-Soviet republic of about three million people.

With all votes counted, the bloc led by Pashinyan’s Civil Contract party had taken 70.43 percent of the vote, the central election commission said. The Prosperous Armenia party led by influential oligarch and former arm wrestler Gagik Tsarukyan came a distant second with 8.27 percent.

Pashinyan hailed his victory on Monday morning, thanking the "mighty people" of Armenia. "I am proud of you... Let’s be courageous," he wrote on Facebook.

He became prime minister in May after spearheading weeks of peaceful anti-government rallies that ousted veteran leader Serzh Sarkisian. But efforts at reform stalled in the face of opposition from Sarkisian’s Republican Party, which dominated the National Assembly until Pashinyan resigned last month and triggered the snap vote.

The Republican Party took only 4.7 percent in Sunday’s elections, failing to clear the five percent threshold needed to make it into parliament. The only other party to clear the threshold was the liberal pro-Western Bright Armenia, which took 6.37 percent of the vote.

Voters had expressed optimism about the political changes promised by Pashinyan. "Thanks to the revolution, we will finally have fair elections," 72-year-old pensioner Parzik Avetisyan told AFP on election day.

"I voted for the positive change promised by Nikol," he added. Turnout was 48.63 percent, the election commission said. Previous elections have been marred by accusations of fraud but Pashinyan had last week promised "the best elections Armenia has ever seen".

Observers from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe were to give a press conference later on Monday assessing how the vote was carried out. Parliamentary polls had not been scheduled to be held until 2022.

Analysts say Pashinyan sought new elections while he is at the peak of his popularity. In September, his bloc scored a landslide victory in municipal elections, winning more than 80 percent of the vote in the capital Yerevan, where nearly 40 percent of the country lives.