CEC: Prosperous Armenia to not make it into parliament based on initial results

Late Monday morning, Armenia’s Central Election Commission (CEC) announced the initial election results, according to which Prosperous Armenia fell slightly under the threshold of four percent, and therefore would not enter parliament.

According to CEC Head Vahagn Hovakimyan, the official CEC website presented slightly inaccurate results, as the website data did not include electronic voting, used by Armenian diplomats and their families, and also rounded up numbers. On this basis, many media organisations and others incorrectly believed Prosperous Armenia had just crossed the threshold in order to gain parliamentary seats. Based on the differing initial results announced by the CEC on Monday morning, Civil Contract should be awarded 61 seats (with an additional three seats after the ethnic minority bonus), the Strong Armenia alliance 28 seats (with one additional seat following the ethnic minority bonus), and the Armenia Alliance 12 seats.

However, Hovakimyan also emphasised that every vote could be decisive in this situation, and underscored that the results are only preliminary.

He concluded by noting that as of 12:00, parties could apply to the CEC for recounting. The timing to do so lasts until 18:00 on Monday, but then re-opens again from 09:00–11:00 on Tuesday. Only after this period is closed will the CEC launch a recalculation.

Starting from Monday 12:00 – 18:00 the parties have a chance to apply to CEC for recounting, as well as from 9–11 on Tuesday, and after that they would launch the recalculation.

Recounting will be live streamed on the CEC website. It will be the first time in the parliamentary elections that the CEC will do a random recount.