Two parliamentary candidates from the Strong Armenia alliance have been placed in pretrial detention, Armenia’s Investigative Committee announced.

According to the committee, during the preliminary investigation of a criminal case involving the alleged material inducement of numerous individuals and money laundering on an especially large scale, public criminal prosecution was initiated against six Strong Armenia parliamentary candidates.

The candidates have been charged under Article 46-236, Part 2, and Article 296, Part 3, Clause 3 of Armenia’s Criminal Code.

Detention orders were issued for the six individuals, and their execution was assigned to the police of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

During the investigation, two of the candidates were located and detained. The court subsequently selected pretrial detention as a preventive measure for both individuals.

The preliminary investigation of the criminal proceedings is continuing.

According to preliminary election results, the vote distribution was as follows: Civil Contract – 49.825%, Strong Armenia – 23.281%, Hayastan Alliance – 9.934%, Prosperous Armenia – 3.996%. Under the updated figures, Prosperous Armenia has not cleared the 4% threshold required for political parties, although the party has requested recounts at several polling stations.