Sharjah24 – AFP: Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan claimed victory early Monday in snap parliamentary elections he called in an effort to defuse a political crisis after a disastrous war with Azerbaijan.
But the electoral alliance of his top rival, former president Robert Kocharyan, swiftly contested the vote results and alleged election fraud.
The vote has been seen as a two-horse race, with both Pashinyan, 46, and Kocharyan, 66, drawing massive crowds in the run-up to the polls.
Preliminary results from Sunday's polls showed Pashinyan's party leading with 57 percent of the vote, far ahead of Kocharyan's alliance with 19 percent.
Official results based on ballots from more than 60 percent of precincts counted showed one other party garnering more than five percent of the vote needed to get seats in parliament.
"The people of Armenia gave our Civil Contract party a mandate to lead the country and personally me to lead the country as prime minister," Pashinyan announced early Monday.
"We already know that we won a convincing victory in the elections and we will have a convincing majority in parliament," he added, urging supporters to turn up at Yerevan's main square Monday evening.
Kocharyan's electoral bloc said it would not recognise Pashinyan's quick claim to victory, which came when just 30 percent of precincts had been counted.
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