Armenian PM wins snap vote by landslide

Armenia's acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has won a landslide victory in snap parliamentary elections, results showed Monday, cementing his authority months after sweeping to power in a peaceful revolution.

Pashinyan, a 43-year-old former journalist, has pledged to root out endemic corruption and address widespread poverty in the impoverished, landlocked ex-Soviet republic of three million people.

With all votes counted, the bloc led by Pashinyan's Civil Contract party had taken 70.43 per cent of the vote, the central election commission said.

The Prosperous Armenia party led by influential oligarch and former arm wrestler Gagik Tsarukyan came a distant second with 8.27 per cent.

Pashinyan hailed his victory on Monday morning, thanking the "mighty people" of Armenia.

"I am proud of you... Let's be courageous," he wrote on Facebook.

He became prime minister in May after spearheading weeks of peaceful anti-government rallies that ousted veteran leader Serzh Sarkisian.

But efforts at reform stalled in the face of opposition from Sarkisian's Republican Party, which dominated the National Assembly until Pashinyan resigned last month and triggered the snap vote.

The Republican Party took 4.7 per cent in Sunday's elections, failing to clear the five per cent threshold needed to make it into parliament.

The only other party to clear the threshold was the liberal pro-Western Bright Armenia, which garnered 6.37 per cent of the vote.

As both Prosperous Armenia and Bright Armenia are seen as Pashinyan-friendly, the absence of an opposition party in the newly elected parliament will be a trial run for Armenia's nascent democracy, analysts said.

"The elections have brought to completion the political change made by Pashinyan's 'velvet revolution.' Only pro-revolution parties made it to parliament," analyst Hakob Badalyan told AFP.

"The opposition is extremely weak and from now on public opinion will be the only counterweight to Pashinyan's unchallenged rule." Analyst Gela Vasadze said: "Opposition parties were wiped off Armenia's political landscape and that's a challenge for Armenia's young democracy."
International monitors hailed the elections' democratic conduct, saying the vote "respected fundamental freedoms and enjoyed broad public trust."