Sunday "lessons". What do the Vagharshapat elections suggest?
"Fact" POLITICAL November 18, 2025 7:01 am
Sunday "lessons". What do the Vagharshapat elections suggest? "Fact" "Fact" daily writes: Since the preliminary results of the emergency council elections in Vagharshapat enlarged community last Sunday are already known, we think it is worth going to the preliminary results and observations right away. That is, what did those elections show? Of course, Pashinyan's and CP's pathetic attitude and statements that they won a "crushing victory" in these local government elections are quite comical. This is perhaps a "new word" both in politics and in arithmetic, because the strength of receiving only 48 percent of the votes of the voting participants speaks of a "crushing victory" over the competitors. It seems that Azerbaijan was crushed, Artsakh was brought back, Armenian hostages were released in Azerbaijan. Well, from a psychological point of view, Pashinyan and his CP being so excited by 48 percent is somehow both understandable and pathetic. Pashinyan and CP have been defeated and rejected in the local elections of almost all large communities of Armenia in the last 4 years. And after so many defeats, the "scratched" 48 percent victory of the previous day could be encouraging. After the preliminary picture of the vote began to emerge around midnight, bitter comments and descriptions of the people appeared on social networks. The Pashinyan propagandists did not hesitate to manipulate such posts along with making a "zurna-dhol". Actually, in general, there is no need to blame the people. Moreover, it is not true. What's more, such accusations contain twisted emotions but have zero results.
Real politicians, parties, and forces should not fall under the influence of excessive emotions, but should soberly and with a "cool head" analyze what happened, its multi-layered reasons, and make "earthly" and real conclusions.
And this primarily concerns the representatives of the opposition field. Ahavasik, such a recent result, based on the local elections of Vagharshapat. the large number of opposition units in the electoral and political struggle against the authoritarian and administrative resources-abusing government leads to the opposite result. Large opposition unions are necessary. two, three, maximum four (in the national elections), which will allow to avoid as much as possible the pulverization of the votes of the Protestant electorate. On the one hand, it is regrettable that a marked ideological election struggle did not take place, although, of course, the "Victory" alliance, "Mother Armenia" and "Motherland" candidate made certain efforts in that direction. Nevertheless, the elections mostly remained within the framework of the local government.
Although, for the sake of justice, it was expected that the ideological moment in the Vagharshapat elections and the contrast with the Communist Party, which launched a campaign against the Armenian Apostolic Church, should be more pronounced. In other words, these elections should be more than the elections of the Council of Elders of one administrative unit. But on the other hand, it should be noted that local elections have their own characteristics. And in this case, when almost two dozen villages are artificially attached to the city of Etchmiadzin, the spread of transformed local problems is quite wide. The other thing, which we have not talked about once, is that the opposition forces, let's emphasize, the real opposition forces, should not fight against each other. And in that sense, these elections had a completely understandable and praiseworthy process.
This should be fixed in order to further develop and deepen it in the near future, to bring not fighting against each other to the level of systematic fighting. In addition, "Our way" will (predictably) enter the fray in the national elections, in addition, the main actors of the opposition field will appear, which will significantly change the rules and course of the game. Nevertheless, the Vagharshapat elections were a litmus test for the opposition in the first place. On the other hand, it is necessary to record the work done by the "Haghtanak" bloc, led by Sevak Khachatryan and his team and the election campaign. Getting the votes of around 32 percent of the voters, that is, in the repressive atmosphere created by the Pashinyan government, in the conditions of total anti-propaganda, really proves that extensive work has been done.
The involvement of "Mother Armenia" should also be noted positively. Being a fundamentally new force, it confidently overcomes the transient threshold already in the third local government elections, and in the election campaign it is manifested with a very active, emphasized political component. An important factor was the participation of "Hayrenik" in particular in the person of an intellectual person, Khachatur Manukyan. By the way, despite the enthusiasm and "clarinet-accordion" sentiments in the ruling camp, let's note again that KP and Pashinyan are practically alone, moreover, they do not have the sympathy of more than half of the voters, and this is putting it too mildly.
It is noteworthy that this is the second time in a row (counting the Gyumri election) the involvement of "satellite" forces by the KP gives almost nothing. None of the "satellites" overcomes the transitory threshold even by forming an alliance. This should be taken into account, taking into account the possibility that they can form a separate alliance with "Soros" circles, which is already being intensively talked about. On the other hand, the "Republic" affiliated to the CP was rejected by the voters for the second time in a row.
This also means that Aram Z. Sargsyan is losing effectiveness and also influence in removing "chestnuts" for Pashinyan. Yes, CP does not have a majority, it does not exceed 50 percent. But the bad thing is that the opposition parties don't have that majority either. But there is a subtlety here. the opposition parties still have room to add, and CP is at its potential peak.
It is even fantasized that they get 48 percent. And here the well-known "administrative resources" come to the fore: the power levers and opportunities to influence and oppress citizens, which Pashinyan uses to the full extent and constantly. Extremely large administrative resources were used in Vagharshapat elections. We hear and use this phrase "administrative resource" so often that we kind of start to "forget" that it is similarly a gross election violation and a manifestation of influencing the will of citizens in unacceptable ways. The pop-up observation of the preliminary results, according to localities, allows us to notice that "administrative resources" were used most intensively, especially in rural areas.
More precisely, also in the city, but its influence did not play a very big role in the city of Vagharshapat itself. Moreover, CP did not win at all in the city. And as a summary of what these elections showed. Pashinyan only needs Argishti Mekhakyan as a tool, as the CP leader himself admitted. In the post-election statement, Pashinyan more than clearly stated that the past elections "gave him an important charge" to continue the war against the Armenian Apostolic Church with a new momentum, to seize the Holy See and the Cathedral. He would like to say that he only needed Argishti Mekhakyan as a cover to bring his campaign against the Mother See and Catholicos of All Armenians to the stage of direct attack in the shadow of his face and name, as well as using his position.
But in this matter, we think, Pashinyan is in a bit of a hurry. In fact, about 60 percent of voters in Vagharshapat itself voted against CP. In addition, Pashinyan's candidate Argishti Mekhakyan, who is probably better aware of local sentiments than his boss, continuously avoided speaking openly against the Catholicos of All Armenians. He understood that in that case even the administrative resource would not help him. And Armenian Christians, naturally, should be ready to unitedly defend our sanctity, Mother Cathedral, Mother See. And in that matter, no result of any election or voting has any value and significance.
