Incumbent prime minister Nikol Pashinyan will return to office in Armenia following a significant electoral victory for his Civil Contract Party confirmed on Sunday, June 7th.

Pashinyan’s party—in power since 2018—secured 49.8% of the vote, beating the Strong Armenia Alliance into second place (23.2%). The Armenia Alliance was third on 9.9%.

Externally, Sunday’s vote was seen as a referendum on whether the South Caucasus country should continue its turn away from Russia and towards Brussels. It was conducted with opposition parties being treated as pro-Russian, and criticisms of the government’s 2023 peace deal with Azerbaijan never far from public debate.

According to Pashinyan in an announcement on Monday,

We will continue the course of rapprochement with the West, but we will also continue our participation and membership in the Eurasian Economic Union.

While European Union leaders welcomed his re-election, support for Pashinyan has dropped since the previous election. Armenia’s electoral commission put electoral turnout at 59%.