Armenians voting in key parliamentary elections amid post-war crisisJune 20, 2021 - 08:06 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - Armenians on Sunday, June 20 started voting in parliamentary elections, triggered years ahead of schedule, in the aftermath of the 44-day war in Nagorno-Karabakh. Polling stations opened across the country at 8:00am and will close exactly 12 hours later. A total of 25 parties and blocs are running for seats in the National Assembly. After electoral system amendments approved in April 2021, members of parliament are elected only through closed party lists by party list proportional representation method. Parties and alliances (blocs) need to pass the 5% and 7% threshold, respectively, to make it to the parliament. Acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan announced on March 18 that Armenia will hold snap parliamentary elections on June 20. The PM came under fire after signing a statement with the Russian and Azerbaijani Presidents to end the war in Nagorno-Karabakh almost 45 days after the start of the military hostilities. Under the deal, the Armenian side was forced to return all the seven regions surrounding Karabakh, having lost a part of Karabakh itself in hostilities. Top stories Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan took to social media to thank his Lithuanian counterpart for the contribution. President of the Armenian parliament Alen Simonyan met with the Speaker of the Azerbaijani Milli Majlis Sahiba Gafarova. Achieving stable peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan remains a priority of the OSCE, said Ian Borg. The Cabinet of Ministers decided on Thursday, November 9 to allocated AMD 120 million to arrange the gathering. Partner news | About 173 million drams and more than 30 beneficiary funds. "The Power of One Dram" is 4 years old In June 2020, the exclusive joint corporate social responsibility initiative of Idram and IDBank "The Power of One Dram" was launched. Aliyev travels to Turkey at Erdogan's invitation On June 10, Azerbaijani President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev will leave for Turkey on a working visit. CSTO budget “to be adjusted due to Yerevan’s non-payment of contributions” The CSTO budget for the current year requires adjustments due to the refusal of Yerevan to pay their share of contributions. Russia sends note of protest to Armenia over envoy’s trip to Ukraine’s Bucha Russia has sent a note of protest to Armenia over the visit of Vladimir Karapetyan and Tigran Ter-Margaryan to Bucha. |