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Armenia’s Pashinyan gets enough votes to form government — election official

Early parliamentary elections were held in Armenia on Sunday. Twenty five parties and blocs took part in it

Armenian Acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan Tigran Mehrabyan/PAN Photo via AP

Armenian Acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan

© Tigran Mehrabyan/PAN Photo via AP

YEREVAN, June 21. /TASS/. Armenia’s acting Prime Minister and leader of the Civil Contract party Nikol Pashinyan has secured enough votes (53.92%) at the snap legislative elections to form a new government, head of the Armenian Central Election Commission Tigran Mukuchyan told reporters on Monday.

"Of course, the data that we published give him such a right, yes," he said.

"We have now published the data, or what percentage from the total of the votes each party got. We then later use another plan to determine, who will get how many mandates," Mukuchyan added. He explained that the political party with "54% of the total number of mandates" will be able to form the government while the 53.92%, which Pashinyan’s party received, corresponds to the number of the votes. The Civil Contract party will later receive additional mandates made up of votes that were cast for the parties that did not clear the electoral barrier, which stands at 5% for parties and 7% for electoral blocs.

The election official also explained, who will gain seats in the parliament as the third electoral force, since only two passed the electoral barrier, Pashinyan’s party and the Armenia Alliance of former President Robert Kocharyan (21.04%), while the Armenian parliament should feature at least three political parties according to law.

"The third force making it to parliament is the one that received more votes [than others but did not clear the threshold]," he said when asked the relevant question by TASS. Mukuchyan clarified that the preliminary results give this place to the I Have Honor Alliance.

The I Have Honor Alliance won 5.23% with the threshold standing at 7%. Overall, 25 parties and blocs competed in the elections that were held on Sunday. The turnout is reported to be 49.4%.

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