Armenia - Political parties



Armenia held elections to a new single-chamber 131-seat legislature on 30 May 1999, with 75 deputies elected by single-member constituencies and 56 elected by party lists. Twenty-one parties and blocs fielded candidates on the party list vote, but only six passed a 5% vote hurdle. The Unity bloc garnered 42% of over two million votes cast, gaining 29 seats, followed by the Communist Party of Armenia with about 12% of the vote. In constituency balloting, the Unity Bloc (which included the country's two largest parties, the People's Party and the Republican Party) garnered the most seats (35), followed by nonparty-affiliated candidates (29). Other major parties that received at least 7% of the party list vote in the 1999 legislative race include the National Democratic Union, Armenian Revolutionary Federation-Dashnaktsutyun, Law-Governed Country Party, Communist Party of Armenia, the Armenian Pan-National Movement, Law and Unity bloc, and the Mission Party. The other registered parties included both those newly created for the legislative race and more traditional parties. They were the Mighty Motherland, Homeland bloc, Ramkavar Azatakan Party (Liberal Democratic Party), Freedom Party, Democratic Party of Armenia, Union of Socialist Forces and Intelligentsia bloc, Union of Communist and Socialist Parties, Youth Party of Armenia, Decent Future, National State Party, Free Hayk Mission Party, Shamiram Party, and ONS+ bloc (the National Self-Determination and Homeland-Diaspora). The next parliamentary elections are scheduled for spring 2003.

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