International observers have rated Armenia’s June 7 parliamentary election as free and fair despite a polarized media landscape, inflammatory campaign rhetoric, misinformation, and persistent foreign pressure and interference challenging Armenia’s democratic resilience and the integrity of public debate.

The Council of Europe, in a June 8 statement, said the election offered voters a genuine choice among political alternatives in a well-run process, although direct pressure from abroad, in the form of escalating trade restrictions and security threats were observed during the campaign, aimed at unduly influencing voters in favor of the opposition, international observers said in a preliminary statement released today.

“The Armenian elections took place in a particularly tense geopolitical context, with direct foreign interference,” said Damien Cottier, Head of the delegation of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. “In particular, pressure and threats from the Russian authorities reached an unprecedented and worrying level.”

Observer organizations, however, stressed the need to strengthen Armenia’s democratic landscape given several internal and external factors that played out in the election campaign.

"The concentration of arrests and criminal prosecutions against opposition figures contributed to perceptions of selective justice, while a polarized media landscape, inflammatory rhetoric, misinformation, and persistent foreign pressure and interference challenged Armenia’s democratic resilience and the integrity of public debate," said Farah Karimi, Special Co-ordinator and leader of the short-term OSCE observer mission.

"This underscores the importance of continued efforts to strengthen democratic institutions, safeguard fundamental freedoms, and foster public trust in democratic processes". "The importance of these elections, combined with polarizing rhetoric throughout the campaign, created a tense atmosphere for both voters and election officials," said Jevrosima Pejović, Head of the OSCE PA delegation.

"Election bodies operated under heightened scrutiny, while voters were exposed to sustained political pressure and intense public debate. Tensions arising from domestic and external factors added to the pressure surrounding these elections and influenced public perception of the quality of electoral administration, highlighting the importance of promoting a constructive political climate and strengthening public confidence in electoral bodies."

Janez Lenarčič, head of the election observation mission from the OSCE Office forr Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) said Armenia’s voters were given – and took – the opportunity to make a genuine choice in a professionally managed election process and a vibrant and pluralistic, if often highly polarized campaign.  

“Unfortunately, they had to make that choice against the backdrop of unprecedented foreign interference and pressure, in the form of punitive trade measures and day-by-day threats of further negative consequences contingent on which choice they made,” Lenarčič noted. The ODIHR mission noted the use of manipulative, false and AI-generated content disseminated by some candidates, as well as inauthentic and third-party accounts to discredit opponents, the government and the electoral process.

Overall, the authorities took steps to address disinformation, but the transparency and effectiveness of these efforts were limited by the lack of publicly available information.

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