Pashinyan's sweeping victory in local vote may encourage him to pursue snap Parliamentary elections

CAUCASUS / CENTRAL ASIA - In Brief 26 Oct 2026 by Ivan Tchakarov

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Over the weekend, Armenia held partial local elections, where the ruling Civil Contract enjoyed a sweeping victory. The October 25 vote did not represent nationwide municipal elections as 21 out of a total of 64 municipalities went to the polls. In 19 of them voters elected local councils and in the remaining two they elected community heads directly. In a vast majority of these communities, Pashinyan's party swept the vote with 70-90%, suggesting continuing local strength for the Civil Contract in the aftermath of the victory in the Jun Parliamentary election.There is already increasing chatter in Armenia that Pashinyan may feel tempted to call snap Parliamentary elections with a view to gaining the much-coveted Constitutional majority. I had pointed to this as one of the options for the PM to consider in order to obtain the two-thirds majority needed to send the Constitution to a referendum. In turn, this is needed in order to remove from the Preamble the reference to the Declaration of Independence, which Azerbaijan regards as implying a direct territorial claim. This is now, according to Baku, the last remaining obstacle to signing a peace treaty. None other than Pashinyan mentioned the possibility of an early Parliamentary vote at an Oct 22 press conference, where he also outlined his broader strategy of moving ahead with the peace process. In particular, he argued that the governing party will try to convince the opposition that this (changing the Constitution) is a very important matter of principle, adding that if these efforts fail, the ruling party would pursue other scenarios, including early elections. The act of convincing would, of course, imply pursuing ...