Election in Armenia, meant to end political crisis, is too close to call

Armenia's acting Prime Minister and leader of Civil Contract party Nikol Pashinyan attends a campaign rally ahead of the upcoming snap parliamentary election in Yerevan, Armenia June 17, 2021. Vahram Baghdasaryan/Photolure via REUTERS

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Armenia's political fate hangs in the balance ahead of a parliamentary election on Sunday with opinion polls putting the party of acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and that of former President Robert Kocharyan neck-and-neck.

The Armenian government called the snap election to try to end a political crisis that erupted after ethnic Armenian forces lost a bloody six-week war against Azerbaijan last year and ceded territory in and around the Nagorno-Karabakh region.