UN General Assembly
2018

An important test of our ability to hold genuine free, fair and competitive elections was the Yerevan city council election that took place just before my departure for New York. The fact that for the first time since Armenia became independent, all of the main parties congratulated the winning candidate and nobody questioned the official results shows that a completely new political culture has been established in Armenia. In the same spirit, we are now getting ready for snap parliamentary elections in our country. Free, fair and transparent elections will become an irreversible reality in Armenia and will bring strong and vibrant democratic institutions that function through a system of checks and balances. Protecting our citizens’ rights and ensuring freedom of speech and other forms of expression and of assembly are very high on our Government’s agenda. From now on, there can be no possibility of manipulating the electoral process and undermining the people’s trust.