Only 39 percent of eligible voters in Gyumri cast ballots in Sunday’s parliamentary elections, the lowest turnout in Armenia reported by the Central Election Commission (CEC).
The CEC put nationwide voter turnout at 48.6 percent, down from about 61 percent reported in the previous parliamentary elections held in April 2017.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian insisted that this does not signify a decrease in popular enthusiasm for the “velvet revolution” that brought him to power seven months ago. He said that many voters are no longer bribed by the former ruling Republican Party and that some of his supporters did not bother to vote because they were confident about his My Step alliance’s landslide victory.
Incidentally, the highest turnout (57.5 percent) was recorded in Pashinian’s native town, Ijevan.
Turnout in the northwestern Shirak province, of which Gyumri is the capital, also stood below the national average, at 45 percent.
My Step garnered 65 percent of the vote in Shirak, compared with over 70 percent polled across the country. The provincial governor, Karen Sarukhanian, and Emergency Situations Minister Felix Tsolakian ran for the parliament on the My Step ticket in a local constituency.
By contrast, businessman Gagik Tsarukian’s Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK) did better in Shirak than in most other parts of the country. The BHK got 11 percent in Shirak.
Tsarukian campaigned in Gyumri three days before the elections. He was mobbed there by scores of impoverished people who handed him letters asking for material or other assistance.
The vote took place two days after Armenia marked the 30th anniversary of a powerful earthquake that killed 25,000 people in Shirak and the neighboring Lori province. The area -- and Gyumri in particular -- has still not been completely rebuilt. Shirak has the highest poverty rate in the country.
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