Member of the Armenian delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), deputy speaker of the National Assembly of Armenia from the opposition "Strong Armenia" Faction Aram Vardevanyan, delivered a speech at the PACE session.

The speech reads as follows:

“Distinguished members of the Assembly,

We often call elections the cornerstone of democracy, but its eternal value is equality of opportunity, the sacred guarantee that all political forces can compete under fair and equal conditions.

The election observation report clearly documents that the Armenian parliamentary elections on 7 June suffered systemic violations orchestrated by the Civil Contract party, featuring the flagrant abuse of administrative resources and an unprecedented wave of criminal proceedings explicitly targeting opposition figures.

These facts brought to a widespread perception of selective justice and deliberately deterred opposition supporters from campaigning.

The reality on the ground was shocking: over 300 members of the Strong Armenia alliance were arrested or detained, with continuous violations of the presumption of innocence. These calculated actions by the government generated a deep atmosphere of fear.

Equality of opportunity was diminished because the leader of the Strong Armenia alliance, Mr Samvel KARAPETYAN, was unlawfully held under house arrest, deprived of his right to campaign. Today, three opposition party leaders are deprived of liberty under political instructions from Prime Minister Nikol PASHINYAN.

Furthermore, over 90 percent of the ruling party’s electoral list was composed of state and public employees, obliterating the line between party and government, and equality of elections.

Instead of debating policy, the ruling party promoted vivid hate speech and intimidation, inter alia threats of physical retribution against opponents, and even threats of a new war if Civil Contract failed to retain a constitutional majority.

The Central Electoral Commission, headed by a founder of the ruling party, completely lacked impartiality. Under its own initiative, the results of two polling stations were invalidated, pushing an opposition party below the electoral threshold and transferring additional mandates to Civil Contract. The ruling party hurried to consolidate an artificial and unlawful three-fifths majority, diminishing the values of parliamentarism.

Dear colleagues, democracy cannot survive when the values of freedom and equality are unprotected. Therefore, the election observation report presented today at the Parliamentary Assembly is of paramount importance.

The systemic violations by the ruling party are clearly exposed, and this can and should be considered a victory against the one-sided propaganda of the Civil Contract party. The Armenian people deserve an electoral process that is genuinely free, fair, and equal. The Republic of Armenia deserves a real democracy in conformity with European best practice.

Thank you. God bless the Republic of Armenia. God bless you all.”