Armenia: Nikol Pashinyan claims victory in snap polls

Nikol Pashinyan’s Civil Contract party had 55.61 percent of the vote with two-thirds of ballots counted, preliminary results show.

Nikol Pashinyan, the acting prime minister of Armenia, has claimed victory in a snap parliamentary election he had called in an effort to defuse a political crisis following a disastrous war with Azerbaijan. With 75 percent of results declared, Pashinyan’s Civil Contract party had 55.61 percent of the vote on Monday. The electoral alliance of his top rival, former President Robert Kocharyan, had 20 percent of the vote, according to the Central Election Commission (CEC). Voter turnout was about 50 percent, with some 2.6 million people eligible to vote.