The influence of the so-called “spoiler” parties that emerged during the 2021 elections is expected to remain significant in the upcoming vote, with nearly half of the participating political forces engaged in “splitting” opposition votes. This was stated by political science doctor and former Speaker of the National Assembly Tigran Torosyan.
According to him, before 2021 Armenian elections usually involved around 9 to 11 political parties, while in 2021 that number rose to 25.
Torosyan believes that many of the political forces created during the 2021 elections were not established for genuine political competition or to enter parliament, but rather to dilute opposition votes in favor of the ruling authorities.
He recalled that after the elections some of these “vote-splitting” parties formed various cooperation formats with the ruling force, which, in his opinion, confirmed that these projects had originally been designed to serve the interests of the government.
“Parties are created to compete with one another, not to form artificial structures around the authorities,” he said, adding that such relations resembled a form of “political service market.”
According to him, the primary goal of such forces was to provide political services to the ruling party in exchange for future political or other benefits.
The number of participants in the current elections has slightly decreased to 19, but Torosyan argues that this does not mean the political system has fully recovered.
In his view, at least half of the 19 parties currently participating still do not pursue genuine political objectives and continue to operate according to the same logic.
At the same time, he emphasized that the overall electoral picture remains largely similar to that of 2021: besides the ruling force, several opposition groups are competing for seats in parliament.
According to the former parliamentary speaker, the most realistic chances of entering parliament currently belong to the ruling Civil Contract party as well as the opposition Strong Armenia party, the Armenia Alliance, and Prosperous Armenia.
He did not rule out changes in the list of parliamentary contenders as the campaign develops, but stressed that the broader political landscape has already largely taken shape.