Samvel Karapetyan: Even if a gun were put to Pashinyan`s head, he wouldn`t run for early elections.

ArmInfo. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan will not participate in snap parliamentary elections, according to businessman Samvel Karapetyan, leader of the Strong Armenia bloc.

"Even if a gun were put to his head, he wouldn't participate in snap elections. He barely managed to get 49% of the votes by spending $1 billion," Karapetyan told reporters outside the Anti-Corruption Court in Yerevan, in response to a request for comment on Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's remarks about holding snap elections in the country if necessary.

The politician reiterated his belief that there will be no snap elections. "We would be delighted, but there will be no snap elections," he said.

Regarding local government elections, Karapetyan drew attention to the pressure the Armenian authorities have exerted on opposition candidates. He noted that over 360 representatives of Strong Armenia are either under arrest, house arrest, or administrative supervision. He said this is the reason they are only participating in local government elections in a few regions. "We don't have any people; they've all been detained." "We nominated a candidate in the Spitak community, and they'll probably detain him soon," the politician noted.

It's worth noting that during a briefing on October 22, the Armenian Prime Minister didn't rule out holding early parliamentary elections if the parliamentary opposition couldn't be persuaded to vote for the decision to submit the new Constitution to a referendum.

As a reminder, following the regular parliamentary elections in Armenia held on June 7, 2026, the Civil Contract party has a 3/5 majority, which allows it to pass constitutional laws and make appointments. However, the party lacks the 2/3 majority necessary to directly amend the Armenian Constitution. It's worth noting that since the occupation of Artsakh, demands have frequently been voiced from Baku to amend the Armenian Constitution, citing its alleged territorial claims against Azerbaijan. The Azerbaijani side presents the fulfillment of these and other demands as a precondition for concluding a "peace treaty."