Council of Europe Assembly Calls on Armenia to "End Selective Prosecution of the Opposition PACE Report Confirms Concerns Raised by Amsterdam & Partners LLP over June Elections

Council of Europe Assembly Calls on Armenia to "End Selective Prosecution of the Opposition PACE Report Confirms Concerns Raised by Amsterdam & Partners LLP over June Elections

London, 29 September 2026 — Amsterdam & Partners LLP, counsel to Armenian Opposition Leader Samvel Karapetyan, welcomes the report of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) on Armenia's parliamentary elections of 7 June, which records serious concerns across the whole of the electoral process and calls on the Armenian authorities to end the selective prosecution of the opposition.

The range of problems identified is extensive, including pressure on public servants, social and economic measures announced by the government in the run-up to polling day, and numerous criminal proceedings brought against opposition candidates and activists.

Aram Vardevanian, fellow legal counsel to Mr. Karapetyan, notes that “the systemic violations by the ruling party have been clearly exposed, and this can, and should, be considered a victory against the one-sided propaganda of the Civil Contract party.”

The report gives particular attention to the decision of the Central Electoral Commission to invalidate the results of several polling stations, a decision that proved decisive for the parliamentary representation of an opposition political force that garnered 3.99 per cent of the vote, just below the threshold. The rapporteur notes that while holding a fresh vote in the polling stations concerned was an entirely valid option, the Commission rejected it without any real explanation, and that a decision of such significance should have rested on sound, transparent and verifiable grounds.

The Assembly's recommendations to the Armenian authorities are unusually direct. They include strengthening the independence of appointments to the election administration, fully regulating the use of administrative resources and ensuring effective sanctions for any abuse, reviewing law enforcement tactics to ensure compliance with European human rights standards, guaranteeing full due process in election-related trials, and simplifying the legal and documentation procedures through which displaced and vulnerable voters are able to take part in elections. The last of these carries direct practical significance for Armenians forcibly displaced from Nagorno-Karabakh, for some of whom questions of citizenship and documentation have become an obstacle to participation in the country's political life.

On the independence of the election administration, it is difficult to ignore that the current Chair of the Central Electoral Commission, Vahagn Hovakimyan, was previously a member of the ruling Civil Contract party and of its governing body, sat as a member of parliament for that party, and was nominated for his present office by the Civil Contract parliamentary faction.

Amsterdam & Partners LLP has spent months drawing the attention of international institutions to developments in Armenia. In its submissions and correspondence, the firm has documented conduct observed during the election campaign and on polling day, criminal proceedings against opposition figures, pressure on members of the clergy, and political interference by the authorities in the internal affairs of the Armenian Apostolic Church.

Robert Amsterdam, Founder and Managing Partner of Amsterdam & Partners, states:

"When an election observation report of PACE recommends that a member state end the selective prosecution of its opposition, that wording should be read exactly as it is written, and its significance should not be diminished. This is no longer a political assessment offered by the government's opponents. It is recorded in an official document of a European institution, and it is a damning indictment of Prime Minister Pashinyan.

These issues go to the very heart of equality before the law, pluralism, free and fair elections, freedom of religion, and the protection of independent institutions from state interference. A European institution has now put these problems on the record, and this can no longer be dismissed as an ordinary domestic affair.

"The persistent work of Armenia's opposition, and of everyone who has spent months documenting these developments,has brought matters this far, yet the next step is not merely to document the problems but to address them, including through sustained international attention.”

Amsterdam & Partners LLP is an international law firm specialised in political advocacy and human rights. For more information, please visit www.amsterdamandpartners.com. Media enquiries may be directed to contact@amsterdamandpartners.com.