Nagorno-Karabakh parliamentary election, 2010

← 2005

23 May 2010

2015 →

	First party	Second party	Third party

Leader	Arayik Harutyunyan	Ashot Ghulian	Vitaly Balasanian
Party	Free Motherland	Democratic Party	ARF
Last election	10 seats, 26.7%	12 seats, 37.6%	3 seats, 24.4%
Seats won	14 seats	7	6
Seat change	+4	-5	+3
Popular vote	29,252	18,017	12,725
Percentage	44.2%	27.0%	19.1%
Swing	+17.5%	-10.6%	-5.3%

A parliamentary election was held in the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic on 23 May 2010.

Nagorno-Karabakh declared its independence from Azerbaijan in 1991. A conflict took place between 1988 and 1994 which resulted in Nagorno-Karabakh, with Armenian support, becoming de facto independent from Azerbaijan. However it has not been internationally recognised and Azerbaijan still claims the area as part of its state.

Several changes to the election process were made since the previous election in 2005. Whereas previously, 22 of the parliament's 33 seats were filled using party-list proportional representation and 11 using first-past-the-post, the distribution for these elections is 17–16. Another change concerns the lowering of the election threshold from 10% to 6% (for political parties) and from 15% to 8% (for electoral blocs).

A total of 94,900 voters are registered for the election, about 66% of the total population of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Before the elections, it became clear very few opposition parties would contest. Four parties contesting the 17 list-based seats are registered: Free Motherland (FM), led by Prime Minister Arayik Harutyunyan, the Democratic Party of Artsakh (DPA), the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARM) and the Communist Party of Artsakh (CPA). Of these parties, only the communists did not support president Bako Sahakyan in the 2007 election. 44 More candidates stand for election in the 16 FPTP constituencies.

With about 50% of the votes counted, Free Motherland led the count with 45.8% of the votes. The DPA was at 30.7% and the ARF at 18.2%. The CP was below the electoral threshold of 6% (5.34%), which means it might be difficult for them to get a seat.

...
Wikipedia