Political Forces Operating Under the Logic of Vote Buying Must Be Barred From Future Political Activity, Pashinyan Says

YEREVAN — Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has said that safeguards must be established to ensure that political forces operating under the logic of distributing electoral bribes are unable to exert political influence in Armenia.

The prime minister made the remarks at the National Assembly while presenting the annual report on the execution of Armenia’s 2025 state budget.

According to Pashinyan, citizens once again had the opportunity to freely express their will in the 2026 parliamentary elections. However, he said new challenges emerged during the electoral process. In his assessment, responding to those challenges and developing appropriate mechanisms must become an important part of the upcoming political agenda.

“We must now create guarantees so that political forces that distribute electoral bribes and operate under that logic have no opportunity to exercise any political influence in the Republic of Armenia,” Pashinyan said.

Referring to the parliamentary opposition that will be formed in the ninth convocation of the National Assembly, the prime minister said that, in his view, it was formed as a result of unlawful activity.

“In essence, the parliamentary opposition being formed in the ninth convocation of the National Assembly is a political entity created entirely as a result of illegal activity,” Pashinyan said.

According to the prime minister, the Republic of Armenia has the lawful right to deprive the relevant groups of the opportunity to engage in further political activity.

“It is the lawful right of the Republic of Armenia to address these processes and deprive these groups of the opportunity to continue political activity, and the Republic of Armenia must take measures to that end,” the prime minister said.

Pashinyan also noted that citizens have raised the question of why these problems have not been resolved until now. According to him, in the absence of peace, addressing such issues had been significantly more difficult.

Earlier, it became known that the chairman of the Anti-Corruption Committee had appealed to the minister of justice with a proposal to initiate legislative amendments toughening penalties for electoral crimes.

National Assembly Speaker Alen Simonyan also announced that three legislative initiatives would be brought to the parliamentary agenda. According to Simonyan, the first initiative would toughen penalties for giving and accepting electoral bribes. Previously, the punishment for accepting an electoral bribe was up to seven years in prison, while the punishment for giving one was up to eight years.

“The penalties will be toughened and set at up to nine years of imprisonment for accepting an electoral bribe and up to 10 years for giving one,” Alen Simonyan said.

Members of the National Assembly’s Civil Contract faction have also circulated a package of draft laws proposing that, in Armenia, only Armenian citizens who have lived in the country for six months during the year preceding an election be eligible to participate in nationwide elections and referendums.