Samvel Karapetyan proposes runoff or fresh parliamentary elections in  Armenia

ArmInfo. The "Strong Armenia" bloc, led by Samvel Karapetyan, has proposed that the Armenian authorities either hold a second-round runoff or call new  parliamentary elections. The bloc's leader, Samvel Karapetyan, made  this statement to journalists on June 12 outside a courthouse.

"Neither we nor Pashinyan won. I stated on election day that Armenia  needs legitimate governance, which he failed to secure. The elections  were an absolute failure—marred by fraud and conducted under an  atmosphere of terror and arrests. All of our regional representatives  have been detained; around 780 individuals have been arrested,"  Karapetyan said. Karapetyan further noted that his political force  had already petitioned the Central Electoral Commission (CEC) and  intends to appeal to the Constitutional Court to annul the election  results and schedule a runoff. He maintained that a second round  would be the proper mechanism to determine whether Pashinyan truly  won the election.

When asked what would happen if the Central Election Commission and  the Constitutional Court rejected their applications, he noted that  it would mean an illegitimate government in the country. However, he  stopped short of detailing their next steps or clarifying whether  they would accept their parliamentary mandates or resort to street  protests. According to him, their primary objective remains the  removal of incumbent Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan through legal  means. He added that if achieving this is faster through parliament,  they will enter parliament; if it requires street struggles, they  will take to the streets.

He emphasized that the heads of all their campaign headquarters were  arrested on election day, and these actions indicate that the  elections cannot be legitimate. Karapetyan also asserted that his  political force had made no mistakes, noting that they would not have  otherwise secured the support of 350,000 citizens within a four-month  period.

Reiterating his next steps, Karapetyan stated that they are offering  the authorities a choice: either organize a runoff or annul the  current results and hold new elections. According to him, his bloc is  prepared to follow whichever path the authorities choose.