ARMENIA: PM's Party Retains Control In Snap Election

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's centrist Civil Contract alliance secured a comfortable victory in Sunday's snap parliamentary election, defeating the nationalist Armenia Alliance of former president, Robert Kocharyan by a margin of 54.0% of the vote to 21.1% according to preliminary results.

• The election was called following mass protests in Yerevan following the signing of a peace deal with Azerbaijan following the 2020 war over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region. The agreement saw Armenia cede swathes of land to Azerbaijan, sparking an angry backlash from Armenian nationalists.
• Victory for Pashinyan's party is likely to ensure that the ceasefire agreement with Azerbaijan remains in place for now, reducing the prospect of a further flare-up in violence in the disputed region.
• The result and its aftermath will be closely watched over in Moscow, Ankara, and Baku. Kocharyan is seen as a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, with Pashinyan holding a more distant relationship with the Russian leader. Kocharayan's campaign has alleged irregularities in the voting, with the prosecutor general's office reporting over 300 cases being opened into potential fraud.