"Strong Armenia" doubted the Civil Contract party's 100,000 votes.

"Strong Armenia" filed a petition with the Central Election Commission demanding that the parliamentary election results be invalidated, as the ruling party received approximately 100,000 votes in violation of procedure.

As reported by "Caucasian Knot," the opposition parties "Prosperous Armenia" and "Wings of Unity," as well as the "Armenia" bloc, demanded that the election commission recount the votes at 555 polling stations, and "Strong Armenia" demanded that the results at one polling station be annulled. As a result of the recount, 140 votes were added to the Prosperous Armenia party's tally, but late in the evening of June 11, the Central Election Commission of Armenia annulled the results at two polling stations due to violations, and the party lost 213 votes. Samvel Karapetyan's bloc has decided to seek the invalidation of the June 7 vote results, stated Narek Karapetyan, leader of the Strong Armenia list.

"Strong Armenia" demanded that election results be invalidated

The "Strong Armenia" bloc filed a petition with the Central Election Commission demanding that the results of the National Assembly elections be invalidated, Armenia Today reports.

Samvel Karapetyan's political force considers at least 100,000 votes cast by the "Civil Contract" party suspicious.

The Central Election Commission will consider "Strong Armenia"'s petition on June 14, the day the final election results are published.

The votes of about 100,000 of our fellow citizens were not formed through proper passport verification by technical devices, but through manual data entry by specialists, which is a gross violation of procedure," emphasized Aram Vardevanyan, a representative of the "Strong Armenia" party.

The lawyer also drew attention to the abnormal number of invalid votes The number of ballots, which reached 17,000 due to hasty legislative changes adopted by the authorities just before the elections to deprive the Strong Armenia bloc of the right to use Samvel Karapetyan's name, writes News.Am.

The lawyer added that, in addition, 5,000 citizens' applications to change polling stations were unreasonably rejected, and physical pressure and illegal detentions of opposition proxies were recorded at the polling stations themselves.

Vardevanyan concluded that although the judicial route may seem ineffective in the face of legal chaos, the bloc is obliged to utilize all legal mechanisms in conjunction with parallel political processes, recalling that the bloc's leader, Samvel Karapetyan, has been illegally held in custody for a year.

"If we compare the 2021 and 2026 elections, even the OSCE ODIHR assessments have become more negative." "The authorities, who have consistently claimed to be organizing the fairest and most objective elections, are not living up to these claims, as even according to OSCE/ODIHR assessments, significant regression is being observed," Aysor.Am quotes him as saying.

The OSCE reported a violation of equal opportunities

The campaign was highly confrontational, accompanied by incendiary rhetoric and accusations of vote-buying and other electoral law violations. This led to numerous criminal cases against opposition candidates and activists, causing many opposition supporters to refrain from active participation in the campaign. This, along with pressure on civil servants to attend ruling party events, as well as recently introduced socio-economic measures, has raised concerns about equal opportunity to participate in the election campaign, the OSCE said in a statement on the organization's website.

"A concentration of arrests and prosecutions of opposition figures has contributed to the perception of selective justice, while a polarized information space, inflammatory rhetoric, disinformation, and persistent external pressure and interference have threatened Armenia's democratic resilience and the integrity of public debate," said Farah Karimi, Special Coordinator and Head of the OSCE Short-Term Observation Mission.

"The elections in Armenia took place in a particularly tense geopolitical context, with direct foreign interference. In particular, pressure and threats from the Russian authorities reached unprecedented and alarming levels," said Damien Cottier, Head of the Delegation of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.

“The importance of these elections, coupled with the polarizing rhetoric throughout the campaign, created a tense atmosphere for both voters and election officials,” said Evrosima Pejović, Head of the OSCE Delegation for Liaison with the Electoral Authorities.

“The electoral authorities operated under heightened scrutiny, while voters were subjected to constant political pressure and intense public debate. Tensions arising from internal and external factors increased the pressure surrounding these elections and impacted public perceptions of the quality of election administration,” she said.

“The elections were generally peaceful and without incident. The electoral process was calm and very well organized, procedures appeared to be scrupulously followed, and minor irregularities before the counting "The votes were carefully verified," said Nathalie Loiseau, head of the European Parliament delegation.

The ODIHR mission noted the use of manipulative, false, and AI-generated content disseminated by some candidates, as well as unreliable and third-party accounts, to discredit opponents, the government, and the electoral process. Overall, the authorities have taken steps to combat disinformation, but the transparency and effectiveness of these efforts have been limited by the lack of publicly available information, according to a statement from June 8.