Armenia PM party wins snap parliamentary election

Armenia’s snap parliamentary elections have been won by the party of acting prime minister Nikol Pashinyan, who called the vote to ease anger over a peace deal he signed with Azerbaijan

YEREVAN, Armenia -- Results released Monday showed the party of Armenia’s acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan won the snap parliamentary elections he called to ease anger over a peace deal he signed with Azerbaijan. With all precincts counted, Pashinyan’s Civil Contract party won 53.9% of the vote and former President Robert Kocharyan’s bloc was a distant second place with about 21%, the election commission said Monday. A bloc affiliated with another former president came third with 5.2%, and another party had nearly 4%. Blocs need 7% to get into parliament, however, Armenia's laws allow a third party or bloc to get seats if only two political forces pass the threshold to get into parliament. Pashinyan called the early election after months of protests demanding his resignation because of the peace deal that he signed to end six weeks of fighting with Azerbaijan over the Nagorno-Karabakh region.