Preparations ahead of parliamentary poll in Armenia

Armenians will head to the polls Sunday for a snap parliamentary election which follows a political crisis that has engulfed the former Soviet nation ever since last year's fighting over the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian called the early vote after facing months of protests demanding his resignation following Armenia's defeat in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict with Azerbaijan, its neighbour in the Caucasus Mountains region south of Russia.

A Moscow-brokered peace agreement signed in November ended six weeks of fighting between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces, but saw Azerbaijan reclaim control over large parts of Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding areas that had been held by Armenian forces for more than a quarter-century.

Thousands of Armenians took to the streets in Yerevan and some broke into government buildings, denouncing it as a betrayal of their national interests and demanding that Pashinian step down.

He rejected the demand but eventually called the vote in the apparent hope that it would assuage public anger and allow him to remain in power.

"This is very much a referendum, or an election defined by security — or more correctly, insecurity — given the unexpected and very much unprecedented loss in the war for Nagorno-Karabakh," Richard Giragosian, director of the Yerevan-based Regional Studies Centre, told The Associated Press.

"The attack by Azerbaijan, with Turkish military support, has redefined the political landscape in Armenia," he said.

Nagorno-Karabakh lies within Azerbaijan but was under the control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by the government in Yerevan since a separatist war ended in 1994, leaving the region and substantial surrounding territory in Armenian hands.

Hostilities flared in late September 2020, and the Azerbaijani military pushed deep into Nagorno-Karabakh and nearby areas in six weeks of fighting involving heavy artillery and drones that killed more than 6,000 people.

Pashinian, who came to power after leading large street protests in 2018 that ousted his predecessor, has defended the deal as a painful but necessary move that prevented Azerbaijan from overrunning the entire Nagorno-Karabakh region.

In Sunday's election, more than 2,000 polling stations will open across Armenia, with nearly 2.6 million people eligible to vote.

The ballot includes 21 political parties and four electoral blocs, but two political forces are seen as the main contenders: the ruling Civic Contract party led by Pashinian and the Armenia alliance, led by former President Robert Kocharyan.

Pashinian, a 46-year-old former journalist, seemingly continues to enjoy broad support despite the humiliating defeat in Nagorno-Karabakh and demonstrations demanding his resignation. When opposition protests swelled in Yerevan, he drew thousands into the streets to rally in his support.

During his final campaign rally Thursday, Pashinian told a crowd of around 20,000 supporters in Yerevan that "after eight months of hell, after we entered the war, we've come to this stage, this election race."

Kocharyan, a Nagorno-Karabakh native who was president between 1998 and 2008, ran on promises of reinforcing the country's shaken security, encouraging economic growth and reconciling a society divided by the war and the political tensions.

Alexander Iskandaryan, founding director of the Yerevan-based Caucasus Institute, believes that those who would vote for Kocharyan don't support him as much as they dislike Pashinian. "It's not about people who love Kocharyan. Maybe there are some, but not a lot. The majority of people who would vote for Kocharyan are people who hate Pashinian," Iskandaryan told the AP.

While voters remain polarized, recent media reports cite polls showing Pashinian's party and Kocharyan's bloc neck and neck, and it's unclear if either will be able to win 54% of parliament seats necessary to form a government.