Armenian opposition hold final rally before elections

An Armenian opposition group on Friday held its last rally in country's capital ahead of the snap parliamentary election.

More than 2,000 polling stations will open across Armenia on Sunday, with nearly 2.6 million people eligible to vote.

The ballot includes 21 political parties and four electoral blocs, but two political forces are seen as the main contenders: the ruling Civic Contract party led by acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian, and the Armenia alliance led by former President Robert Kocharyan.

During his final campaign rally Friday, Kocharyan told supporters in Yerevan that Pashinian's "government can't address all issues because they created all of them themselves".

"We have come to put it to an end," he added.

Kocharyan, a Nagorno-Karabakh native who was president between 1998 and 2008, has run on promises of reinforcing the country's shaken security, encouraging economic growth and reconciling a society divided by the war and the political tensions.

Supporters say Kocharyan needs to win in order for Armenia to do well.

"We want Armenia to be strong, solidarity, and all prisoners of war to come back. I want Kocharyan to be elected and Armenia to prosper," Mariam Gevorgyan told The Associated Press at a rally in support of Kocharyan Friday.

"We came (to the rally) to free our homeland from the defeatist (Pashinyan)," Narek Markosyan, who also attended the Kocharyan rally on Friday, added. "He can't stay, period. Just period. He can't stay in our homeland."

Pashinyan, who took office just three years ago, called snap elections in a bid to defuse political tensions sparked by his handling of a conflict with Azerbaijan over the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh.

A six-week war that broke out last fall ended with a Russia-brokered ceasefire deal, under which Armenia ceded large swaths of territory in and around Nagorno-Karabakh.

The territory that lies within Azerbaijan was under the control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia since the end of a separatist war in 1994.

The truce was celebrated as a triumph in Azerbaijan, but sparked a political crisis in Armenia, with thousands of opposition supporters taking to the streets to protest against the terms of the deal and to demand that Pashinyan resign.