Civil Contract wins most of Armenia’s 21 local elections, loses Stepanavan

Commission says it handled 42 election-day reports

Separately, the Central Electoral Commission’s Situation Analysis Centre said it responded rapidly to 42 reports received through media and telephone calls. Those chiefly concerned voter lists, technical problems with cameras in polling rooms and questions about voting procedures. OC Media carried the centre’s account on 26 October. This was a count of reports handled, not 42 verified violations.

Commission figures refine earlier announcements

The Central Electoral Commission (CEC) published preliminary results on 26 October. Its figures replace conflicting vote totals previously announced by Armenia’s territorial administration and infrastructure minister, Davit Khudatyan; they are not additional votes. The tables distinguish votes from the minister’s earlier participation counts.

Civic.am, a news site close to the governing Civil Contract party, groups Goris’s result under Civil Contract. The commission figures published by Armenpress identify the list as Solidarity, an alliance of Civil Contract and the Businessman Party. Solidarity also led in Gavar.

Preliminary vote shares alone do not establish council-seat allocations, elected community heads or governing majorities.

Businessman Party leads in Stepanavan

Incumbent community head Armen Grigoryan, a Civil Contract member, headed the Businessman Party’s list, Azatutyun said on 26 October. The Businessman and Civil Contract lists competed separately in Stepanavan.

Civic.am gives Businessman 5,504 votes rather than 5,506, but the same 41.54% share. Its figures for Civil Contract and third-placed Strong Armenia match the table.

Civil Contract leads Republic by 185 votes in Yeghegnadzor

Yeghegnadzor’s preliminary count puts Civil Contract 185 votes, or 1.20 percentage points, ahead of the Republic Party. Neither party received half the reported vote.

In his 25 October announcement, Khudatyan named Husik Sahakyan as Civil Contract’s list leader and put participation at 15,429. He congratulated Sahakyan on an election victory without announcing a council-seat allocation.

Civil Contract and Solidarity lead other competitive races

Khudatyan congratulated Hrazdan’s list leader on what he described as reelection as community head. He congratulated the leaders in Artik, Martuni, Artashat, Meghri, Goris, Gavar, Dilijan and Tsaghkadzor on what he described as election as community heads.

Five communities had only Civil Contract on the ballot

Civil Contract faced no competing political list in Armavir, Vardenis, Garni, Akhuryan or Vayk. Voters could vote for or against the sole list.

Khudatyan congratulated Mkhitar Matevosyan on what he described as reelection in Vayk, and Varsham Sargsyan, Aharon Khachatryan and Zaven Manukyan on election as community heads in Armavir, Vardenis and Akhuryan.

Observers report access and secrecy concerns

The Akanates observation mission said its 43 mobile teams visited 407 polling stations and recorded 217 instances of problems or possible electoral violations at 137 of them. These were problems and suspected violations, not 217 established electoral offences.

Akanates said difficulty accessing polling stations was the most common problem. Its teams also recorded crowding, risks to ballot secrecy, family voting and breaches of campaigning restrictions. Family voting means several people entering a voting booth together. Other incidents concerned possible control over voting, compliance with election procedures and obstruction of observers’ rights.

Separately, Seda Varagyan, a Free Democrats party representative at an Artik polling station, alleged that she had been threatened with consequences after the election. She said she pressed for the incident she witnessed to be entered in the station’s register.

Electoral commission says interrupted livestreams were restored

The CEC said livestreams interrupted at the start of voting in Gyulagarak, Vardablur, Gargar and Agarak had all been restored. Citing communications provider Ucom, it attributed the outage to equipment damaged after an overnight power interruption at the Pushkino television tower.

Strong Armenia representative Gohar Meloyan said complaints from Stepanavan concerned the quality of self-adhesive stamps attached to ballots. She called for the problem not to result in ballots being invalidated. Polling-station commission members also complained that stamps stuck to their fingers and peeled off ballots.

The CEC said the stamps had been printed in accordance with the Electoral Code. It attributed the problems to improper handling that damaged their protective layer before attachment to ballots. The commission said it had taken corrective measures and such incidents had not recurred.

Closing turnout across the 21 communities

Stepanavan recorded the highest closing turnout, while Fioletovo recorded the lowest. These figures measure participation, not support for a candidate or party.

As of 26 October, the CEC had published results for the 19 party-list communities, while results for the individual-candidate elections in Fioletovo and Shamiram still awaited publication.