Armenians heading to polling stations for snap parliamentary elections
YEREVAN, June 20. /ARKA/. More than 2,000 polling stations have been opened across Armenia at 8 am today, with nearly 2.6 million people eligible to vote in the early parliamentary elections.
Twenty-one political parties and 4 electoral blocs are competing for the seats in the National Assembly, but 2 are considered the main candidates -the ruling Citizens’ Contract Party, led by acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, and the Hayastan (Armenia) alliance, led by former President Roberto Kocharyan.
According to the Armenian election law, citizens of Armenia abroad are not eligible to vote in national elections (with the exception of heads and employees of Armenian diplomatic missions, military personnel on long business trips or training in foreign countries, as well as members of their families).
The snap parliamentary elections were called by Nikol Pashinyan to resolve public anger over the peace agreement he signed in November last year with presidents of Russia and Azerbaijan to end the hostilities in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone as a result of which Azerbaijan gained control over part of Nagorno-Karabakh itself and the surrounding seven districts held by Armenian troops for more than a quarter of a century.
These are the second snap parliamentary elections in the history of the Republic of Armenia - the first time they were held in December 2018 - about six months after the April velvet revolution that brought opposition leader Nikol Pashinyan to power.
At 09:00, the Central Election Commission (CEC) is to publish the first information about the elections, and from 12:00 to 21:00, it will be announcing information about the voter turnout and the course of voting at three-hour intervals.
During the entire voting period, the CEC, the Prosecutor General's Office, the Police, the Investigative Committee, the human rights defender's office will be periodically providing information about violations, complaints and mass media reports.
The polls are being watched by several international organizations, including the CIS Inter-parliamentary Assembly, the CSTO Parliamentary Assembly, the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (OSCE / ODIHR), and the International Organization of Francophonie.
Voting ends at 20.00 local time, after which the counting of votes will begin in the election commissions.
The preliminary results of voting will be summed up by the CEC June 21 until 20.00 - live on Public Television and Public Radio of Armenia. -0-
