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Pashinyan says election results signal need for new opposition in Armenia

26 October 2026 18:55 (UTC +04:00)

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, speaking during a Facebook livestream, described his party’s landslide victory in the local government elections and said Armenia must develop a new, state-oriented opposition, Pan.am reports.

He declared that the “three-headed party of war has been destroyed, as we can see from the local election results.”

Following the October 25 local government elections held in 19 Armenian communities, the ruling Civil Contract party emerged victorious in most of them.

The prime minister also emphasized that the formation of a new opposition political force should become a subject of public discussion.

“I want to share my assessments and perceptions. First, during the parliamentary elections, I promised, and it was my commitment, that the Roba-Serzha-Kaluga-Ktrich forces, or, in a word, the spy forces, the three-headed or four-headed party of war, must be destroyed. The results of the local government elections show that this has happened with the help and support of Armenian citizens.

“But on the other hand, I want to say openly and directly that, as someone who became Armenia’s prime minister following the 2018 nonviolent Velvet Revolution, I am not at all happy that we received more than 90%, 80% or 70% of the vote in several communities. However pleasing these percentages may seem at first glance, they evoke certain associations.

“These results also raise the question of opposition in Armenia. We must assess this situation correctly. On the one hand, we must genuinely eradicate from Armenia the spy opposition controlled from abroad. On the other hand, Armenia must have a state-oriented opposition,” he said, according to Armenpress.

Pashinyan stressed that the issue had been discussed in various formats, raising the question of what the government could and should do to facilitate the emergence of a new opposition.

“Our conclusion is that we should do nothing. By that, I mean we should not take practical or active steps in this direction. Otherwise, we could find ourselves in an even worse situation and attempt to revive the worst political practices in Armenia.

“You remember that Armenia once had a so-called client opposition, an opposition that could be controlled. That is equally disastrous for Armenia.

“But I believe Armenia must develop a new, state-oriented and genuine opposition that engages in real political activity rather than espionage. The need for this is obvious. At the same time, the government cannot and must not create an opposition, because that would be a controlled opposition, a fake opposition,” Pashinyan explained.