ANC considers June 7 parliamentary elections results illegitimate

ArmInfo. The Armenian National Congress (ANC) party of Armenia's first president, Levon Ter-Petrosyan, stated that the June 7, 2026, elections to the  National Assembly of Armenia did not meet democratic standards for  free, fair, transparent, and competitive elections.

The political party's statement noted that the entire electoral  process was marked by systematic and widespread violations by the  authorities, which seriously call into question the credibility of  the published results and their true reflection of the free  expression of the will of voters.

The political party cited the following violations: organized voting  by military personnel at several polling stations from 8:00 PM until  1:00 AM after the end of voting hours. According to the ANC, this is  an unprecedented violation that contradicts the principles of  transparency and equality in the electoral process and requires a  comprehensive investigation.

"The authorities fully utilized administrative resources, exploiting  the public administration system for their own electoral gains.  During the election campaign, the government made extensive use of  state and municipal budgets, state institutions, public structures,  and state resources, grossly violating the principle of equal  competition. Public television grossly violated the principle of  equal treatment of political forces, giving the government a clear  informational advantage during the campaign.

The entire election process was accompanied by pressure,  intimidation, hate speech, illegal arrests, and criminal prosecutions  of opposition representatives, their representatives, activists, and  voters, which continued even on election day. Numerous opposition  leaders and activists were arrested, undermining free political  competition," the ANC statement continued.

Ter-Petrosyan's party added that information had been received from  numerous polling stations regarding directed and controlled voting,  illegal influence on voters' will, as well as changes favoring the  government, and other serious violations recorded during the vote  count. Power outages were recorded at many polling stations during  the voting and counting process, significantly undermining the  transparency of the process and raising further doubts about the  legitimacy of the count.

The ANC noted that in a number of localities, the election campaign  of opposition political forces was hampered by violence, threats,  physical pressure, and other illegal actions. Numerous instances of  interference by external actors were recorded, which, in our  assessment, negatively impacted the freedom and equality of the  electoral process.

The political force noted that after the results from only 10% of  polling stations (less than 5% of voters who participated in the  vote) were published, the authorities' public announcement of their  victory came at a time when the majority of votes had not yet been  counted at most polling stations.

"This indicates that the authorities, having not obtained the  expected results based on preliminary data, decided to grossly  interfere with the electoral process with this announcement and  illegally change the final vote result. Mathematical analysis based  on the Gaussian curve anomaly method reveals evidence of tens of  thousands of votes being falsified in favor of the authorities, which  requires independent professional expertise and an international  assessment," the ANC further emphasized.

It is noted that the combination of the above circumstances provides  grounds for the conclusion that the published election results cannot  be considered an indisputable expression of the free, equal, and  unimpeded expression of the will of the citizens of the Republic of  Armenia.

"Consequently, the government formed through such elections cannot be  considered exemplary. We call on the competent authorities of the  Republic of Armenia, international observation missions, and  international organizations committed to democratic values to conduct  a comprehensive, independent, and impartial investigation into all  presented facts and allegations. They must provide a legal assessment  of each violation and take the necessary steps to restore public  confidence in the electoral process.

The Republic of Armenia can have an effective and legitimate  government only when government formation is based on the free  expression of the people's will, and not on administrative pressure,  unequal competition, a climate of fear, and systemic violations that  undermine public confidence in the electoral process. At the same  time, the Armenian National Congress calls on the opposition forces  that have entered parliament not to relinquish their mandates under  any circumstances and to use all parliamentary levers to overthrow  the illegitimate regime," the ANC concluded.