2012 Armenian parliamentary election

Out of a total of 131 seats in the National Assembly, 90 are distributed between parties using a proportional system, while the other 41 are elected from constituencies by a majoritarian voting system. The election threshold is 5% for parties and 7% for alliances, in this case the only alliance was the Armenian National Congress.

Months before the election, there was a movement for the elimination of constituency seats and going to a full party-list proportional system. Most parties, including 3 of 5 parliamentary parties (ARF, PAP and Heritage), supported this initiative bringing up the issue of "district authorities" which were traditionally backed up by the Republican Party.[2] The opposition bloc Armenian National Congress also supported it.

On February 28, Heritage and ANC joined the ARF protests in front of the National Assembly building,[3] but on February 28, the National Assembly voted 30-54 against the proposal.[4]

On 4 May the last official day of the campaign, during the Republican Party concert and rally in Republic Square of Yerevan, dozens of balloons filled with hydrogen exploded, resulting in the injury of at least 144 people according to the Ministry of Emergency Situations.[17] A few hours later it was reported that out of total 154 people hospitalized, 98 were still in hospitals and 28 were in intensive-care units.[18]

On 6 April four parties (Prosperous Armenia, Heritage, ARF and ANC) created joint headquarters with a view to holding free and fair elections.[19] Although, Prosperous Armenia is in a coalition with RPA and RoL, they also agreed to join the opposition manifest. On 19 April Heritage withdrew from this agreement announcing that it was not formed to control the election, but rather as a pre-election campaign headquarters for the ex-president Robert Kocharyan's comeback into Armenia's political life and probable participation in the 2013 presidential election.[20]

On 28 April the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (9 MPs) and Prosperous Armenia (21 MPs) appealed to the Constitutional Court to rule unconstitutional articles that prohibits the publication of the lists of voters that actually took part in the election.[21][22][23][24] Although, Heritage deputies didn't sign the appeal, party leader Raffi Hovhannisyan said that they also support that initiative.[25] Vahe Grigoryan, the lawyer that represents the appeal, said that the Constitutional Court is "going to make a choice between rationality and dictation [from the authorities]".[26] Levon Zurabyan, the ANC speaker, said that each party will have up to 5-6 representatives at each polling station. Also, the parties have agreed to create joint 'mobile' groups that will respond to all reports about election fraud by traveling to the given precinct to study and eliminate the vote rigging.[27]

The Constitutional Court heard the case on 5 May, the day before the election and refused the appeal.[28][29]

31,451 observers from local non-government organizations were registered to oversight the election.[30] Largest ones are the "Panarmenian Youth Association" (Համահայկական երիտասարդական ասոցիացիա) with 5,555 observers, "The Choice is Yours" (Ընտրությունը քոնն է) with 4,000 observers, "Free Society Institute" (Ազատ հասարակության ինստիտուտ) with 2,512 observers and "Fist" (Բռունցք) with 2,136 observers. Other organizations have less than 2,000 observers.

647 international observers were registered by the Central Electoral Commission.[31] Largest missions were:

• OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights - 258 observers[32]
• CIS Mission of Observers - 151 observers[33]
• OSCE Parliamentary Assembly - 69 observers

The Gallup International Association held an exit poll among 22,410 people in 131 polling stations. 46.35% refused to answer, while 56.65% answered as follows: 43.3% Republican Party of Armenia, 29.3% Prosperous Armenia, 6.4% Armenian National Congress, 6.5% Heritage, 6.2% Rule of Law, 5.2% Armenian Revolutionary Federation, 2.2% Armenian Communist Party, 0.6% Democratic Party of Armenia, 0.4% Unified Armenians Party.[47][48][49]

• Republican Party of Armenia - RPA speaker Eduard Sharmazanov announced that this election was the best one held in Armenia in the 21st century. Later, he added that the society is "satisfied with its results".[50][51]
• Prosperous Armenia - PAP leader Gagik Tsarukyan thanked everyone for supporting them and stated that popular support is the most important thing for him.[52][53]
• Armenian National Congress - The ANC did not recognize the legitimacy of the election.[54]
• Armenian Revolutionary Federation - on 8 May ARF released a statement which said that the election did not "record the will of people".[55][56]
• Heritage - On 8 May the party announced that they do not recognize the legitimacy of the election and that mass violations dramatically changed the results.[57]
• Rule of Law - RoL leader, Artur Baghdasaryan stated that this election was the first time done without ballot stuffing and brawling. Also, the calculation of the votes was under complete control of parties.[58]

•  European Union: Foreign Policy Chief Catherine Ashton's statement about the election said that the EU welcomes the efforts of the Armenian authorities to hold "more transparent and competitive elections", however a number of issues kept the election away from internationally recognized democratic standards.[59]
• OSCE: The OSCE/ODHIR recognized the election as "competitive and largely peaceful, but shortcomings undermined confidence in the process". They also said that the campaign environment generally respected freedoms of assembly and expression and candidates were, mostly, able to campaign freely. But the general lack of confidence in the integrity of the process amongst political parties and the general public is an issue of great concern.[60]
•  United States: During her visit to Armenia, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that "despite certain shortcomings, the elections were compliant with international standards".[61] Clinton also stated that she was "pleased at the reports from international monitors about Armenia’s parliamentary elections last month being generally competitive and inclusive".[62]