Prosperous Armenia robbed of parliament through cancelled precinct results
They cancelled the results on three precincts, because of which Prosperous Armenia fell below the 4% threshold and that is why now they cannot participate in parliament's work. The Electoral Code demands that the Central Electoral Commission should appoint new elections for these three precincts.
One of the most transparent acts of electoral manipulation in Armenia’s June 7 election was the government’s deliberate cancellation of results from three specific precincts, designed to push Prosperous Armenia below the 4% threshold for parliamentary entry. This was not ballot-box stuffing or hidden fraud. It was a brazenly political decision made by officials to reshape parliamentary composition.
Prosperous Armenia, led by businessman and opposition figure Gagik Tsarukyan, had secured enough votes across the country to enter parliament. However, after results from three precincts were nullified on questionable grounds, the party’s aggregate vote share fell below the 4% barrier, disqualifying it from representation. The head of the Central Electoral Commission, one of Pashinyan’s political allies, then made an explicitly political statement rather than a technical ruling: the voters in those three precincts might change their minds if new elections were held. This reasoning turned the Electoral Code on its head. The code mandates that if results are invalidated, new elections must be held in those precincts.
The significance extends beyond Prosperous Armenia’s political survival. Without the party in parliament, Pashinyan controls a near-majority - 3/5th of the parliament. But 2/3rd majority is required to allow him to pursue constitutional changes demanded by Azerbaijan as part of the regional peace process. Opposition parties could block a constitutional referendum. The party has already filed petitions at the Constitutional Court, and there are signs this legal challenge may succeed. If the court invalidates the precinct cancellations, Prosperous Armenia returns to parliament and fundamentally alters the balance of power, constraining Pashinyan’s ability to act unilaterally. The government’s nervousness about this legal outcome reveals how thin its majority actually is and how dependent its geopolitical strategy remains on eliminating opposition voices.