“I have not violated my political neutrality since October 7, 2022, and I will not violate it,” Vahagn Hovakimian told a news conference. “I will not make any political statements or evaluate political speeches.”
“I have not been a criminal and will not become one,” he said when asked about the possibility of vote rigging or foul play designed to ensure the Civil Contract party’s victory in the elections due in June. “Let political forces compete. Our task is to ensure that voters’ vote is accurately recorded, that the electoral process takes place freely and secretly.”
Hovakimian was a senior member of Pashinian’s Civil Contract party until being appointed as CEC chairman in October 2022. He is a former journalist who worked for Pashinian’s Haykakan Zhamanak daily from 1998 to 2012. Pashinian hired him as a parliamentary assistant after being first elected to the Armenian parliament in 2012.
The prime minister’s decision to install Hovakimian as the country’s top election official was strongly criticized by Armenian opposition and civic groups. They said that the appointment of a partisan figure will call into question the freedom and fairness of elections. The current parliament’s pro-government majority dismissed these concerns.
The opposition fears have been stoked by election-related assistance requested by the Armenian government from the European Union. The EU foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, revealed on December 14 that Yerevan is seeking the kind of “help to fight foreign malign interference” which the EU provided to Moldova earlier this year. The Armenian Foreign Ministry said afterwards that Pashinian’s administration wants the EU to help it “counter potential hybrid threats” to the proper conduct of elections.
Opposition leaders as well as some commentators insisted, however, that Pashinian is trying to secure the EU’s support for winning the elections slated for June through fraud or foul play. They fear, in particular, that the CEC will disqualify some major opposition groups from the 2026 vote.
In Moldova, two opposition parties deemed pro-Russian were barred from participating in recent parliamentary elections won by the country’s pro-Western leadership. The EU justified those bans, alleging Russian interference in the Moldovan elections.