Who’s who in Armenia’s 2026 parliamentary elections?
Voters are set to choose the country’s next ruling party in what will be the first regularly scheduled parliamentary vote since 2017.
On 7 June, nearly 2.5 million eligible voters in Armenia will choose between 18 parties and alliances competing for seats in parliament.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s ruling Civil Contract party is expected to face its strongest challenge from three major opposition blocs: the Strong Armenia Alliance, backed by Russian–Armenian billionaire Samvel Karapetyan; the Armenia Alliance, the main parliamentary opposition alliance led by former president Robert Kocharyan; and the Prosperous Armenia party led by businessperson Gagik Tsarukyan.
Armenia’s formerly ruling Republican Party, which was previously present in parliament as part of the I Have Honour alliance, will sit out the elections.
Civil Contract
Slogan: Stand for peace.
The Civil Contract party, led by Pashinyan, has ruled Armenia since the 2018 Velvet Revolution and remains the frontrunner in the upcoming elections. The key question is whether the party can once again secure a constitutional majority, allowing it to govern without coalition partners and push through constitutional changes.
Civil Contract entered parliament in 2017 as part of the Way Out Alliance with just 7.7% of the vote. The following year, after then-president Serzh Sargsyan attempted to remain in power as prime minister, which became possible after a constitutional change, Pashinyan launched a protest campaign which ultimately forced Sargsyan’s resignation.
Running in the subsequent 2018 snap elections under the My Step Alliance, Civil Contract won over 70% of the vote.
Arshaluys Barseghyan
Pashinyan’s biggest challenge has remained Armenia’s defeat in the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War in 2020, which sparked mass protests and demands for his resignation. Despite the crisis, Civil Contract retained power in the 2021 snap elections, winning 54% of the vote.
At the party’s 2025 congress, Pashinyan pledged to establish a ‘Fourth Republic of Armenia’ if re-elected, centred around adopting a new constitution — an issue repeatedly raised by Azerbaijan as a precondition for signing the initialled peace treaty.
Pashinyan has, since 2024, heavily promoted his ‘Real Armenia’ ideology, insisting that Armenians must accept modern Armenia within its current borders. He has also warned that an opposition victory could lead to renewed war with Azerbaijan as they want to ‘revise’ the peace, and has further accused his main rivals of maintaining foreign ties, labelling them as a ‘three-headed war party’.
In foreign policy, Pashinyan has said he wants a ‘balanced and balancing’ approach, making efforts to normalise relations with Azerbaijan and Turkey and deepen cooperation with the EU and the US, while at the same time maintaining ties with Russia.
Civil Contract is currently polling in first place, according to the latest International Republican Institute (IRI) poll, with 32% of respondents saying they would vote for the party as of 22 May.
Strong Armenia
Slogan: Change only with Samvel Karapetyan.
Russian–Armenian tycoon Samvel Karapetyan, whose estimated wealth of $4.4 billion amounts to around half of the country’s entire public budget, was largely uninvolved in politics before he made his entry in June 2025.
Interestingly, Karapetyan’s brother, Karen Karapetyan, has longstanding ties to Armenia’s former ruling Republican Party, serving as an MP from 2007–2008 and 2012–2018, as well as chief of staff to then-president Sargsyan.
Samvel Karapetyan’s engagement in the political sphere, however, only came after he was arrested following remarks in defence of the Armenian Apostolic Church amidst escalating tensions between the Church and Pashinyan’s government. Authorities swiftly charged him with calling for the usurpation of power, while also adding separate money laundering charges.
Arshaluys Barseghyan
Today, the campaign is formally led by his nephew, Narek Karapetyan, though in reality Samvel Karapetyan continues directing it from house arrest.
Despite polling strongly enough to likely enter parliament independently, Karapetyan’s Strong Armenia party chose to form a broader alliance with the smaller New Era and United Armenians parties. The Country to Live party — linked to another Russian–Armenian tycoon, Ruben Vardanyan, jailed in Azerbaijan since September 2023 — later signed a cooperation memorandum with the bloc.
Although named as the alliance’s candidate for prime minister, Karapetyan is constitutionally barred from the post due to holding citizenship of another country. Even so, the alliance has pledged to change the constitution if elected to pave the way for his candidacy.
Arshaluys Barseghyan
The alliance has promised sweeping economic reforms, but concerns remain over Karapetyan’s vast business interests in Russia and reported ties to Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), with many questioning how independently he could shape Armenia’s foreign policy. Karapetyan has rejected all allegations, however, insisting Armenia will remain his sole priority.
In addition to the charges against Karapetyan, dozens of others have also been arrested, mostly accused of attempting to bribe voters.
Although there is no figure for the total number of members of the party arrested, Armenian authorities announced that from February to 19 May, 57 criminal proceedings had been launched related to electoral crimes. These cases predominantly included Karapetyan’s alliance affiliates. For his part, Karapetyan has rejected handing out any bribes.
Strong Armenia is currently in second place according to the latest poll, with 6% of respondents saying they would vote for the party as of 22 May.
The Armenia Alliance
Slogan: Together we can.
The alliance, which emerged as the largest opposition bloc following the 2021 snap elections, is once again led by Armenia’s former President Robert Kocharyan.
Born in Nagorno-Karabakh, Kocharyan served as the region’s president before moving to Armenia in 1997, when he was appointed prime minister. A year later, he was elected Armenia’s president and remained in office until 2008. The end of his tenure was marked by the deadly crackdown on post-election protests on 1 March 2008, after the opposition disputed the election results as rigged.
Pashinyan was among the protest leaders, and after he came to power, Kocharyan was charged over his alleged role in the violence.
After entering parliament in 2021 — though Kocharyan at the time refused to take his seat in parliament, saying that, ‘by virtue’ of his character, he had ‘always been a person of executive power’ — the alliance fell apart by the end of 2022. This was largely the result of Reborn Armenia’s decision to leave parliament, supporting other MPs from the Armenia Alliance and I Have Honour blocs, who boycotted parliament beginning in May that year, demanding the government's resignation and holding parallel street protests against what they alleged was Pashinyan’s ‘readiness to make major concessions’ to Azerbaijan in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
Now, Kocharyan’s alliance returns in a different configuration: still including the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, it is now joined by the newly established Forward Party, founded by former Republican Party member Sevak Khachatryan. This party is replacing Reborn Armenia, the party chaired by former Syunik governor Vahe Hakobyan, who was also an ex-member of the Republican Party.
Kocharyan has accused Pashinyan of eroding ties with Russia and advocates for deeper ties with Russia and what he describes as a ‘guaranteed peace’, suggesting that Russia, the US, China, and France could play a role in securing it.
The Armenia Alliance came in third place in the latest poll, with 3% of respondents saying they would vote for the party as of 22 May.
Prosperous Armenia
Slogan: Guaranteed peace, prosperous Armenia, well-off life.
Eccentric tycoon Gagik Tsarukyan founded his party in 2004, and previously formed coalitions with Sargysan’s governments. After their relations deteriorated, Tsarukyan stepped back from politics in 2015, returning ahead of the 2017 parliamentary elections, when his party re-entered parliament.
For the 2026 elections, the party is running via the Proposal to Armenia programme, together with Andranik Tevanyan’s Mother Armenia Alliance and Suren Surenyants’s Democratic Alternative, on a joint list. The coalition is yet to announce their prime ministerial candidate, though Tsarukyan has claimed that it will not be him.
Tsarukyan has described his programme as a ‘political and civic Noah’s Ark’ guiding the country to ‘salvation and rebirth’. He has separately pledged to construct a Noah’s Ark memorial after completing what he says will be the world’s tallest Jesus Christ statue, claiming the works will draw ‘millions’ of tourists.
Over two weeks ahead of the elections, however, the party faces trouble.
On 21 May, Tevanyan was charged with espionage and treason, as part of what appears to be the first investigation into Russian-backed espionage and treason since Armenia gained its independence. Tevanyan has been accused of being recruited by foreign intelligence services in 2024 and of passing on state secrets in exchange for $622,000, accusations he denies.
Separately, reporting by the independent Russian media outlet The Insider, citing leaks from Russia’s now-disbanded Directorate for Interregional and Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries, included copies of Tsarukyan’s passport as well as financial estimates related to his 2017 election campaign.
Tsarukyan has clear business ties in Russia and is also friends with Belarusian President Aliaksandr Lukashenka. Previously, in 1979, he was convicted and sentenced to seven years in prison for robbery and the gang rape of two Russian tourists. The verdict, however, was overturned in 2001 following an appeal by Tsarukyan.
Prosperous Armenia is currently tied for fifth place, with 1% of respondents saying they would vote for the party in the latest poll.
The Meritocratic Party of Armenia
Slogan: Work creates strength, strength creates rights.
Despite being founded only in 2025, the party ranked fourth in the latest IRI poll published in late May, with 2% of respondents saying they would vote for it in the upcoming elections, behind Tsarukyan’s party.
Gurgen Simonyan, the chair of the party, advocates Armenia’s withdrawal from Russia-led blocs, including the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO), and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), while calling for deeper integration with Western institutions.
Simonyan previously served in Armenia’s Public Council in 2019–2020, an advisory body for the Armenian government.
The New Power party
Slogan: Let’s build a Kargin (‘Proper’) country.
The party, founded in 2024, is led by ex-Yerevan mayor and well-known comedian Hayk Marutyan. Their slogan is a reference to Kargin Haghordum (Proper Show), a popular comedy sketch series co-created by Marutyan that has aired since the early 2000s.
Marutyan was a prominent supporter of Armenia’s Velvet Revolution, following which he was elected Yerevan mayor with the then-ruling My Step Alliance. He was ousted in 2021 via a no-confidence vote by the ruling coalition, however, and since then, has taken an oppositional stance.
Through his leadership of the National Progress party, Marutyan came to be the main challenger of the ruling Civil Contract in the 2023 Yerevan City Council elections, coming in second. In February 2024, however, he was removed from the council over accusations he had missed too many council sessions. Later that same year, Marutyan and the National Progress party ended their cooperation, leading Marutyan to found his own party.
This election will mark Marutyan’s first run in parliamentary elections. His campaign has focused heavily on satire and mocking videos mostly targeting Pashinyan. Marutyan has also left open the possibility of cooperating with Karapetyan’s alliance.
The New Power party was below the polling threshold as of 22 May.
The Armenian National Congress
Slogan: A sensible path for Armenia.
Though ostensibly headed by the 81-year-old first president of Armenia, Levon Ter-Petrosyan, the party has been fronted in the campaign by its prime ministerial candidate, Levon Zurabyan.
The party emerged in 2008 as an alliance of opposition parties and activists backing Ter-Petrosyan following the disputed presidential election that year — five years later, it was officially established as a party. The alliance entered parliament in 2012, with Pashinyan among its MPs, though subsequent electoral attempts failed.
Ter-Petrosyan and Pashinyan were once close allies, jointly leading protests after the 2008 election, but relations between them have sharply deteriorated, especially since 2025 amidst mutual accusations and criticism. Ter-Petrosyan has also backed the Church in its ongoing confrontation with Pashinyan.
Despite repeatedly expressing sympathy for Karapetyan and calling for opposition consolidation around him, talks between the Armenian National Congress and Karapetyan’s Strong Armenia Alliance failed to produce an agreement.
The party has vowed to continue the process of establishing peace and normalising relations with Azerbaijan and Turkey, as well as establishing the TRIPP+BRICS Concept, with which they believe ‘Armenia will overcome its landlocked status, becoming a strategic international transit hub’.
The Armenian National Congress was below the polling threshold as of 22 May.
Wings of Unity
Slogan: Justice is coming.
The Wings of Unity party, formed in 2025, is led by former Human Rights Defender Arman Tatoyan, who held the post from 2016 to 2022. He was arguably Armenia’s most popular human rights defender in light of his fact-finding activities reporting on the damages caused by Azerbaijan since the 2020 war and subsequent escalations.
Prior to 2016, Tatoyan served as deputy foreign minister during Sargsyan’s presidency.
The party also includes former State Revenue Committee head Davit Ananyan, who served under Pashinyan from 2018 until resigning in 2020. Earlier, under Sargsyan, he had served as deputy finance minister.
Its electoral list also includes members of the nationalist Shant Alliance party.
The party says it aims to ‘build an Armenia without hidden agendas’.
The Armenian Independence Observers group filed a report alleging illegal party financing following an investigation by the Dossier Centre, which suggested that the party’s pre-election campaign may have operated on a $2.5 million budget over five months and involved coordination with Russian political consultants linked to Kremlin-affiliated structures.
Xandie (Alexandra) Kuenning
The Wings of Unity party is currently tied for fifth place, with 1% of respondents saying they would vote for the party in the latest poll.
Bright Armenia
Slogan: Defend your identity.
Bright Armenia was founded in December 2015 by Edmon Marukyan, who is best known for having served as Armenia’s Ambassador-at-Large from March 2022 until February 2024, when he resigned citing ‘differences in our views on several fundamental foreign policy issues’.
Ahead of the 2017 parliamentary elections, the party joined forces with Civil Contract and the Republic Party to form the Way Out alliance, which cleared the electoral threshold.
The party’s strongest result came in the 2018 snap parliamentary elections, when it entered parliament independently. However, in the 2021 elections, it failed to pass the electoral threshold.
In its most recent campaign, the party has advocated for Archbishop Mikael Ajapahyan, convicted of publicly calling for a coup in October 2025, for the presidency, arguing that Armenia should not have a president who ‘has no disagreements with the executive branch and does not balance the judicial and legislative powers’. The party will not nominate a candidate for prime minister.
The Bright Armenia party was below the polling threshold as of 22 May.
The Republic party
Slogan: For you, Armenia, for you.
The party was founded in 2001 by Aram Sargsyan, who briefly served as Armenia’s prime minister from 1999–2000 following the assassination of his brother and then-prime minister Vazgen Sargsyan, a founding figure of the Armenian Armed Forces who played a central role in the First Nagorno-Karabakh War.
In 2017, it was part of the Way Out alliance alongside Civil Contract and Bright Armenia. In 2023, it entered into a governing coalition in Yerevan with Civil Contract after no party secured a majority in the city council elections.
The party was also part of Eurovote, a civic initiative that collected over 60,000 signatures and succeeded in pushing Armenia’s Parliament to adopt a bill calling on the government to pursue EU integration in 2025.
The Republic party is currently below the polling threshold as of 22 May.
The Rally For The Republic party
Slogan: Your voice in the Parliament.
The party was registered in 2021 and is chaired by Arman Babajanyan, who entered parliament in 2018 as a member of Bright Armenia before later serving as an independent MP.
The party has a pro-Western stance and was among the members of the Eurovote initiative. In particular, it advocates normalisation with neighbouring countries, Armenia’s withdrawal from the Russian-led CSTO and the EAEU, and exclusively ‘horizontal’ relations with Russia.
The Rally For The Republic party is currently below the polling threshold as of 22 May.
The Christian-Democratic Party of Armenia
Slogan: Vote for justice.
Founded in February 2021, the party is led by political analyst Levon Shirinyan. That year, Shirinyan ran with Babajanyan as the Shirinyan–Babajanyan Democrats Alliance, but the coalition failed to pass the electoral threshold and did not enter parliament.
Shirinyan has positioned his party against both Armenia’s return to Russian influence and the comeback of Armenia’s former ‘criminal-oligarchic’ political elites.
The Christian-Democratic Party of Armenia is currently below the polling threshold as of 22 May.
The Against All Democratic Party
Slogan: Against all.
Registered in March 2026, less than three months before the elections, it describes itself as an alternative political party with an alternative offer.
The party aims to form a 100-day government, amend the Electoral Code, and trigger new elections through its resignation, while pledging not to contest the next vote. It argues the current system ensures ‘the absolute power of a single party, regardless of the election results’, and calls for abolishing the stable majority rule, lowering the electoral threshold, and introducing a ‘against all’ ballot to guarantee ‘a real choice, not a forced one’ and those votes to converted into vacant mandates.
Its prime ministerial candidate is human rights activist Nina Karapetyants, who vows to step away from politics for 10 years after serving.
The party has held a unique campaign, beginning by throwing mud at the logos of all the candidates in a reference to the common Armenian idiom ‘to throw mud’, meaning to defame or discredit.
The Against All Democratic party is currently tied for fifth place, with 1% of respondents saying they would vote for the party.
The Democratic Consolidation party
Slogan: Let’s build the Armenian state.
Founded in 2021, the party is chaired by Suren Petrosyan, a prominent supporter of the Tavush for the Motherland movement, which opposed border delimitation in Armenia’s northern Tavush region in 2024. Petrosyan later stepped back from the movement in mid-June 2024, following large-scale protests against Pashinyan’s government.
The party takes a middling stance, supporting the maintenance of strong relations with Russia, while also deepening relations with the EU and US.
The Democratic Consolidation party is currently below the polling threshold as of 22 May.
The Kochari National Revival and National Awakening Party
Slogan: Victory is not only a memory of the past, but also a goal of the future.
The party, founded in March 2026, vows to ‘hire a 50–80 thousand private army and to liberate Artsakh [Nagorno-Karabakh] and Nakhchivan’.
The party is chaired by Artak Sargsyan, with his brother Arman Sargsyan serving as vice-chair. According to media reports, the pair, known as the ‘Arthur Brothers’, have long been involved in controversial political and business activities in Kenya and the Maldives, including alleged drug trafficking and document forgery, allegations they deny.
The brothers also supported the Tavush for the Motherland movement and were detained in June 2024 by Armenia’s National Security Service on suspicion of illegal weapons possession.
The Kochari National Revival and National Awakening party is currently below the polling threshold as of 22 May.
The Democracy, Law, and Order Party
Slogan: Democracy, law and order.
The party was founded in 2024 and originally nominated former military police officer Vardan Ghukasyan as its prime ministerial candidate. However, the Central Electoral Commission (CEC) has rejected his registration, citing failure to prove continuous residence and citizenship requirements for the previous four years, as required by law. It is unclear whether they will nominate someone else, or continue supporting Ghukasyan.
Ghukasyan rose to prominence via his social media streams, publishing scandalous and leaked information about various state bodies and actors. He has been wanted by Armenia since May 2023 over allegations of extortion, contempt of court, and public calls for violence. He is currently being held in a US prison for alleged immigration violations.
Ghukasyan previously led the Public Voice party, which won around 10% of the vote and seven seats in Yerevan’s 2023 city council elections. Unlike the other two opposition blocs, Public Voice attended the inaugural council session, helping avert an opposition boycott aimed at forcing new elections. He left the party in January 2024.
The Democracy, Law, and Order party is currently tied for fifth place, with 1% of respondents saying they would vote for the party.
The National Democratic Pole Alliance
Slogan: Faith, homeland, sovereignty — into action.
Founded in May 2020, the party is largely made up of members of the Sasna Tsrer (the Daredevils of Sasun), a group of Nagorno-Karabakh War veterans known for storming a police station in Yerevan in July 2016 and called for an uprising against the government, taking hostages. Two police officers were killed during the crisis.
The alliance has nominated Varuzhan Avetisyan, convicted for the 2016 events, as its candidate for prime minister.
The party’s platform centres on the principle of legal succession from the First Republic of Armenia, including what it describes as the restoration of Armenia’s territorial integrity ‘including Artsakh’ and a reassessment of the Soviet period as an ‘occupation’.
The National Democratic Pole Alliance is currently below the polling threshold as of 22 May.
The Reformists Party
Slogan: Security and development.
The party is led by Vagharshak Harutyunyan, who held senior roles in Armenia’s security structures between 1991 and 2000, including as defence minister. Under Pashinyan, he briefly served as chief adviser in 2020 before again being appointed defence minister later that year. He subsequently served as Armenia’s ambassador to Russia from 2022 until his recall in 2024.
The party was founded in 2016 by Vahan Babayan, a former MP of the Prosperous Armenia party. In 2017, Babayan however backed Sargsyan and the then-ruling Republican Party.
They pursue the adoption of a new national security concept and, through constitutional amendments, the limiting the post of prime minister to a single term.
The Reformists party is currently below the polling threshold as of 22 May.
