There are one or two developments in Armenia that I have missed. So, here is a brief update.

Armenia lost its Freedom House designation as an electoral democracy in 2003. Currently, it has a Freedom House score of 5, which places it only just in the Partly Free category.

There were considerable constitutional amendments in November 2005. These had the effect of changing the system from a president-parliamentary form of semi-presidentialism to a premier-presidential form. The original 1995 version is available here. The 2005 version is available here. In terms of the form of semi-presidentialism, the key article is Art. 55-4.

The last parliamentary elections were in May 2007. The Republican Party (HHK) won 64/131 seats. In February 2008 Serzh Sargsyan, also of the HHK, won the presidential election, taking over from Robert Kocharyan who was term-limited.

Following the 2007 legislative elections a four-party coalition was formed, comprising the HHK, the Prosperous Armenia (BHK) party, Rule of Law (Orinats Yerkir) party, and the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun). Together, these parties had 107 seats in the legislature. The main opposition to the government is headed by the former president, Levon Ter-Petrossian of the Armenian National Congress.

Anyway, in April 2009 the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun), a nationalist party, withdrew its three ministers from the coalition. Armenialiberty.org reports that they withdrew because the Armenian and Turkish governments had reached an agreement to ‘normalise’ relations.

Then, on 31 May municipal elections were held in Yerevan. This was the first such election. Until the November 2005 constitutional amendments, the President of the Republic appointed the mayor of Yerevan.

The results were as follows:

Republican Party (HHK): 186,630 (47.43%) – 35 seats
Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK): 89,131 (22.65%) – 17 seats
Armenian National Congress Alliance (HAK): 69,140 (17.57%) – 13 seats (declined to take them)
Rule of Law Party (OEK): 20,106 (5.11%)
Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun): 18,094 (4.60%)
People’s Party (ZhK): 8,479 (2.15%)
Labor Socialist Party of Armenia (HASK): 1,936 (0.49%)

There is a 7 per cent threshold for individual parties and a 9 per cent threshold for alliances.

There was one international electoral observation mission from the Chamber of Local authorities of the Council of Europe. The report is available here. It tries to be positive, but notes some serious problems.