Civil Contract rating vote is formal and controlled by one person – political technologist

The intra-party rating vote held by Armenia’s ruling Civil Contract party to shape its pre-election list is formal and centrally controlled, political technologist Armen Badalyan told Aysor.am.

According to him, Civil Contract is a leader-oriented party in which a single individual ultimately decides candidates’ positions and vote allocations.

“It does not matter who formally holds what place within the party, and those votes do not determine anything. If it is decided that person X will be 15th on the list, he will be 15th; if person Y is assigned 36th place, he will be 36th. The list positions themselves also do not mean much – the same Y could even become Speaker of the National Assembly, because that is what he wants,” Badalyan said.

He argued that the main purpose of the internal vote is to create the appearance of a democratic process for the public.

Commenting on whether such procedures are meant to signal confidence ahead of the 2026 elections, Badalyan said that both ruling and opposition forces worldwide tend to declare that they have already secured victory.

Civil Contract held the first round of voting on February 13-15 to approve its electoral list, during which party delegates determined candidates’ ranking through a closed, secret ballot.