After protesting the country’s defeat in the war with Azerbaijan last year, the current prime minister called an election.

Opinion polls in Armenia began on Sunday, and the parliamentary elections convened by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan have become increasingly angry after the country’s defeat in the war against archenemy Azerbaijan.

Since the military defeat last year, Pashinyan has lost much of its appeal. He hopes to extend his term, but he is competing fiercely with former President Robert Kocharyan.

His critics accused him of ceding large areas of the Nagorno-Karabakh separation area to Azerbaijan, an agreement that ended last year’s fighting and failed to deliver on reform promises.

In a radical campaign ruined by polarized rhetoric, Pashinyan said that he expected his Civil Contract Party to receive 60% of the vote, although some opinion polls said these estimates were far-fetched.

Armenian Soviet-era dominator Russia and Turkey supported Azerbaijan in the six-week war surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh last year. They will watch the elections in this South Caucasus country with a population of about 3 million.

Political observers said that due to the high indifference among voters and the fact that Pasinyan and Kocharyan attracted large crowds in the final days of the game, it is difficult to predict the outcome of the election.

A vicious election campaign witnessed mutual insults and threats among candidates. Both front-runners are expected to hold demonstrations after the election.

Pasinyan, 46, wielded a hammer at the rally, while Kocharyan, 66, said that he would be ready to fight the prime minister and claimed that he planned to rig the vote.

Al Jazeera reporter Rory Charand reported in Yerevan that people hope that “these elections two years in advance will give the winners a certain degree of legitimacy and give them five years… to start working hard. response [the country’s] problem. “

However, according to Charans, morale is low.

Chalans added: “We have been talking to people and they said that basically no politician is particularly attractive to them, and they are still as traumatized by losses as the entire country.”

‘It’s time to change’

Armenian President Armen Sarkissian was mainly a ceremonial figure, condemning attempts to “incite hatred and hostility” and urged law enforcement agencies to prevent any violations of the law.

“These elections were conducted under difficult circumstances,” he said on Saturday. “They are vital to our country and people.”

Pashinyan said that in order to prevent further loss of personnel and territory, he must agree to the truce with Azerbaijan initiated by Moscow.

According to the latest estimates from Armenia and Azerbaijan, more than 6,500 people were killed in the war.