Robert Kocharyan: Pashinyan’s government openly stole 60,000 PAP votes in Armenia`s elections

ArmInfo. Armenia faces an obvious legitimacy deficit following the parliamentary elections held on June 7, as at least 60,000 votes of Gagik Tsarukyan’s Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP) were stolen by the ruling authorities. This was stated by the second president of Armenia and leader of the opposition "Armenia" alliance, Robert Kocharyan.

According to him, citizens who cast their votes for the opposition, and not only for the opposition, clearly see this deficit of legitimacy. Kocharyan believes that the Constitutional Court, where opposition forces appealed today, must restore this legitimacy issue to some extent.

“We see an obvious theft of votes when it comes to the PAP. Pashinyan used to say he would cut off his own hand before allowing vote theft. What do we have now? He stole 60,000 votes and walked away with them. This is not just shameful; it is a crime. And here is my opinion—the Central Electoral Commission should not be formed this way. Previously, it was formed with the participation of opposition representatives. If it were still the case, we would not be witnessing this disgrace,” the politician said.

He further drew attention to Pashinyan’s subjugation of all branches of power—from the judiciary and legislature to the executive branch. He stated that all dictators started this way, gradually bringing everything under their control. At the same time, the opposition figure believes that the consequences for Armenia will be catastrophic if things continue in this direction, stressing that this must be stopped.

When asked to clarify whether his political force had made a decision regarding parliamentary mandates, Kocharyan noted that they had not, adding that they should wait for the Constitutional Court's decision.

“There is still hope that the PAP’s votes will be restored; otherwise, the legitimacy of these elections is zero. My position is well-known: if there is an intention to continue the fight, we must use the maximum available tools to do so. Yes, a mandate is a tool. It turns out the illegitimate government gets to keep its mandates, while the opposition, which earned them through hard work and sweat, is supposed to refuse them? However, this is just my logical reasoning. No decision has been made yet. We are ready for both options, but there must be a consensus decision among the opposition forces,” Kocharyan said.

The politician also supported the proposal made by Samvel Karapetyan, leader of the "Strong Armenia" alliance, to unite the Armenian opposition and create a unified front. He recalled that even before the June 7 parliamentary elections, his political force believed the opposition should cooperate more actively, but other forces tried to distance themselves from them. Kocharyan did not rule out that it might have been the right decision at that moment.

“Even now, I believe cooperation is necessary, and we have made statements regarding this. I believe this lies within the realm of our common interests,” he added.

Kocharyan did not rule out that consolidating the opposition would create fertile ground for removing Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan from power. He expressed his conviction that these processes need to be advanced, noting that it is difficult to gauge the real mood of the people when a regime exhibits dictatorial tendencies.

In this context, he pointed out that the entire pre-election period in Armenia was accompanied by fraud, including budget-funded bribes, intimidating the population with war, budgetary pressures, as well as arrests and detentions of opposition members.

Commenting on the evaluations of European countries regarding the elections in Armenia, Kocharyan noted that if such violations had occurred during his presidency, European nations would have raised a massive uproar.

At the same time, he admitted that the application of double standards in geopolitics has become the norm today, and the key factor is solely which side a particular politician in a given country stands on. According to him, those who are recognized as one of "their own" are allowed to get away with anything.

“This is the real picture. And it carries a massive responsibility for these countries and the European bureaucracy, as they are nurturing yet another dictator. By the way, they already have plenty of experience with this in other countries,” Kocharyan concluded.