New rules for Armenia`s 2026 parliamentary race

ArmInfo. According to the latest amendments to Armenia's Electoral Code, the parliamentary electoral threshold for parties has been lowered to 4%, while for blocs it has increased from 7% to 8-10%.

Vahagn Hovakimyan, Chairman of the Central Electoral Commission (CEC),  shared this information at a press conference in Yerevan on March 11, when presenting the new provisions of the Electoral Code  that will be applied in the parliamentary elections in June, 2026.

Hovakimyan clarified that the threshold for blocs of up to three  parties is set at 8%, while for blocs with more than three parties,  it is set at 10%. Speaking about the size of the electoral deposit,  he noted that for parties it has been reduced from 10 million drams  to 7.5 million drams, while for blocs it is 15 million drams.  According to Hovakimyan, this decision was made to consolidate  political forces.

"Legislation should facilitate the consolidation of political forces.  We have received data on 126 parties registered in Armenia, but we  assume there are more. For Armenia's 2.5 million citizens, this is a  huge number. If legislation facilitates the formation of consolidated  political forces, it will improve the quality of elections," the CEC  Chairman emphasized.

Also, Hovakimyan  presented changes to the principles of coalition  formation. He noted that the law previously prohibited the formation  of coalitions of more than three political forces, but this ban has  now been lifted. "According to the new rules, the right to form a  coalition within the first nine days is granted to the political  force that receives the most votes. If a coalition is not formed  within this period, the remaining political forces are given the  opportunity to form a so-called 'minority coalition,'" he added.

Hovakimyan cited the situation during the Gyumri Council of Elders  elections, where the ruling Civil Contract party, having received the  most votes, remained outside the coalition, and power passed to other  forces that had passed the electoral threshold and formed a  coalition.

According to him, changes have also been made to the bonus system,  or, so to speak, the system for granting additional mandates.  Hovakimyan explained that if the threshold for the ruling force was  previously 54%, it is now 52%. However,  according to the new  legislative changes, the political force that receives the most  votes, even if it receives less than 52% of the votes, will receive  the mandates needed to achieve this percentage. He clarified this by  saying that the majority of mandates in the Armenian parliament   usually depend on the country's national minority representatives,  who are granted four mandates by law. This decision was made to avoid  dragging national minority representatives into domestic political  squabbles and making the ruling party dependent on these mandates.

Also, changes have been made to the distribution of mandates: if a  political force receives less than two- thirds of the votes but more  than two-thirds of the mandates, these mandates will be redistributed  among the parties that did not cross the threshold but received 2% or  more of the votes. "For example, in 2021, the ruling Civil Contract  party received 53.9% of the votes and exceeded the two-thirds mandate  threshold. If the new rule had been in effect then, one mandate would  have been transferred to the party that received the most votes but  did not cross the threshold," Hovakimyan concluded.