Zach Crawford
(ANSA) – YEREVAN, June 20 – Polling stations opened this morning in Armenia for early legislative elections, which is dangerous for Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan after the military defeat of the small Caucasus state in Nagorno-Karabakh. The former journalist who rose to the head of government in 2018 thanks to a peaceful revolution against the old corrupt elites faces his main rival, former President Robert Kocharian, who accuses his political opponent of incompetence and opposes him as an experienced leader.
A recent poll by the Gallup International, MPG, put Kocharian’s coalition slightly ahead, with 28.7% of voting intentions, and Pashinyan’s party slightly behind, with 25.2%. After six weeks of bloody clashes in Nagorno-Karabakh, during which thousands of lives were lost, Armenia and Azerbaijan signed a Russian-brokered ceasefire agreement in November. Under the agreement, Azerbaijan retained the occupied territories and Armenia also ceded other areas of Nagorno-Karabakh and adjacent territories.
Also on the basis of the agreement, Russia sent about 2,000 soldiers to Nagorno-Karabakh to ensure compliance with the armistice. (handle).
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