The United States and the European Union have praised Sunday’s parliamentary elections in Armenia, echoing the vote’s positive assessment by European observers.
They also pledged to help Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian, whose political alliance won a comfortable majority in the Armenian parliament, carry out political and economic reforms promised by him.
“The United States congratulates the people of Armenia on the conduct of their December 9 parliamentary elections,” a spokesman for the U.S. State Department, Robert Palladino, said in a statement issued late on Monday.
“The United States concurs with the OSCE’s preliminary conclusions that the elections process enjoyed broad public trust and respected fundamental freedoms,” he said.
“We look forward to working with the new Armenian Parliament and Government to deepen our bilateral partnership and cooperation to strengthen the rule of law and democratic institutions, combat corruption, promote trade and investment, and safeguard regional and global security,” added Palladino.
“The early parliamentary elections were important in terms of enhancing public trust towards the electoral process in Armenia,” read a separate statement released by Maja Kocijancic, an EU foreign policy spokeswoman.
“We look forward to working with the democratically elected new Parliament and the future Government to deepen our political and economic relations based on the joint commitments of the EU-Armenia Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement,” she said.
Armenia - Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian greets German Chancellor Angela Merkel at Yerevan airport, 24 August 2018.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel was apparently the first European leader to congratulate Pashinian on his bloc’s election victory. In a congratulatory message cited by the Armenpress news agency, Merkel reaffirmed support for his reform agenda.
In their preliminary report, the more than 300 monitors deployed by the OSCE, the EU and the Council of Europe noted a “general absence of electoral malfeasance” in the snap polls held over seven months after Pashinian-led mass protests toppled Armenia’s former government.
U.S. President Donald Trump said in a September letter to Pashinian that those protests “ushered in a new era in Armenia.” The State Department spokesman likewise noted the “remarkable change in Armenia.”
Incidentally, both the U.S. and the EU gave largely positive assessments of the previous Armenian parliamentary elections held in April 2017. The U.S. Embassy in Yerevan said at the time that “voters were able to freely exercise their right to vote.” The EU declared, for its part, that the official election result “reflects the overall will of the Armenian people.”
The 2017 vote was won by then President Serzh Sarkisian’s Republican Party (HHK) amid opposition allegations of widespread vote buying and pressure on voters. In the latest polls, the HHK narrowly failed to clear a 5 percent vote threshold to enter the parliament.
Pashinian has repeatedly pledged to deepen Armenia’s relations with the U.S. and EU. He has made clear at the same time that his country will remain allied to Russia.