ArmInfo. The good news for Pashinyan from Moscow, congratulations and wishes of Dmitry Peskov, put an end to the attempts of Robert Kocharian, who had radiated confidence in his own victory yesterday, to seriously challenge the election results. Russian political scientist, expert on the post-Soviet space Arkady Dubnov, expressed a similar opinion to ArmInfo.
To note, the first foreign reaction to the results of the elections in Armenia came from the Kremlin. "We are very carefully monitoring and welcome the information that comes from Yerevan. We welcome the information of the Central Election Commission of Armenia on these elections. And, of course, we see that the Pashinyan's party won a convincing victory, and we wish that the decision of the Armenian people would help the country to enter the path of sustainable development," Press Secretary of the President of Russia Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
"In general, it must be stated that even before the elections, Pashinyan was almost sure of his own sustainability. And a significant role in this was played by certain assurances he received personally from Putin, the essence of which was his commitment to maintaining the neutrality in Pashinyan's struggle with Putin's "personal friend" Kocharian. The Kremlin has assured Yerevan of its refusal to help anyone in the election campaign, voicing a desire to work with the winner, regardless of his personality. That is why the news of the unconditional victory of the Civil Contract party in the Kremlin was met quite favorably, "he said.
Dubnov also suggested that a certain contribution to Pashinyan's victory belongs to former presidents Robert Kocharian and Serzh Sargsyan, who tried to take revenge on June 20 for the defeat in the spring of 2018. According to him, it was precisely the fear and hatred of Sargsyan and Kocharian that overshadowed the people's disappointment in Pashinyan as a fighter for justice. More than half of the Armenian citizens entitled to vote, tired of trusting Pashinyan and hoping for his promises to be fulfilled, simply did not come to vote. But there was no revenge either.
"The Armenians are really tired. That is why there will be no civil war promised by the pessimists before the elections. But Pashinyan's promises to divide the country into right and wrong again will not bring peace and better life as well. It was fatigue that played a decisive role in the reluctance of the Armenian society to call on the old leaders in order to win new wars. And I don't think that there will be new leaders in Armenia today for revenge over Azerbaijan. I think it is necessary to recognize this and get involved in completely different, far from war battles. That will allow them to preserve dignity and, most importantly, to stop tormenting the Armenian people," the political scientist summed up.
According to the preliminary results of the early parliamentary elections held on June 20 in Armenia, after the CEC counted votes from all 2008 poll stations, the "Civil Contract" party of acting Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan won by 687,251 votes (53.92%) . Pashinyan won in all regions of Armenia, including Yerevan.
Of the remaining 25 political forces that took part in the elections, only the "Armenia" bloc of former President of Armenia Robert Kocharian by 268,165 votes (21.04%) and, as provided by law, the third force "I have honor" bloc, which gained 5.23%, will be represented in the new parliament. All other political forces together collected 15.7%. Of the 2.578 million citizens eligible to vote, 1,281,174 or 49.4% of voters took part in the voting.