Armenians Begin Voting In Landmark Parliament Elections

Armenians have begun voting in a snap parliamentary election nine months after hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets in protests that led to a peaceful change of government and ignited new hopes of more-democratic rule.

Pre-election opinion polls have indicated that acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s My Step alliance is the big favorite to win the December 9 snap election.

It was Pashinian, a former anticorruption journalist, who led the demonstrations that forced long-entrenched leader Serzh Sarkisian to step down from his office.

Pashinian was eventually elected to the prime minister post, although the Republican Party (HHK) maintained its majority in parliament.

Pashinian announced in October he was resigning from the post in order to dissolve parliament and force early elections. He has continued to perform his prime-ministerial duties until a new parliament and prime minister are elected.

Pashinian pushed for early parliamentary elections following his bloc's landslide victory in the mayoral race in the capital, Yerevan, in a bid to unseat the HHK.

Pashinian’s My Step alliance, the HHK, and nine other political parties and alliances are vying for seats in the 101-member National Assembly.

The list of candidates of the HHK is headed by former Defense Minister Vigen Sarkisian.

Vigen Sarkisian is no relation to Serzh Sarkisian, who served 10 years as president before assuming the prime minister post in an effort to remain in power. Serzh Sarkisian is not running in the election.

A Gallup poll conducted between December 1 and December 4 among 1,100 voters put the My Step Alliance well ahead of all other parties with 69.4 percent.

No other party broke the 6 percent level, with the Republican Party at around 1.3 percent support.

Armenia has traditionally been a close ally of Russia, although Pashinian has spoken of desires to also increase the South Caucasus nation’s ties with the United States and Europe.