Pashinyan's Civil Contract party leads early count in Armenia election

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's ruling Civil Contract party was leading Sunday's parliamentary election according to early results released after polls closed.

Citing Armenia's Central Election Commission (CEC), state news agency Armenpress reported that Civil Contract had secured 57.14% of the vote based on ballots counted from 110 of the country's 2,005 polling stations.

Strong Armenia, led by billionaire Samvel Karapetyan, was in second place with 21.4% of the vote, followed by the Armenia Alliance of former President Robert Kocharyan with 8.2%.

Polling stations across Armenia closed at 8 pm local time (1600GMT) after voting for the 101-seat National Assembly.

Earlier, the CEC reported that nearly 1.5 million Armenians cast ballots out of roughly 2.5 million registered voters, resulting in a turnout of 58.97%.

Sixteen political parties and two political alliances registered to participate in the election.

Pashinyan's Civil Contract party entered the vote holding 69 seats in parliament following the 2021 snap election.