CIS observation mission head commends electoral commissions’ preparation level

YEREVAN, May 6. /ARKA/. The Head of CIS observation mission, the first Deputy Chief of the Commonwealth’s Executive Committee Vladimir Garkun commends positively preparation level of district and territorial electoral commissions. 

“In general, we assess positively the election work, conducted by district and territorial commissions and CEC. The legislature base meets all international standards,” Garkun told the journalists on Sunday. 

He noted that 173 observers from CIS were assigned to different commissions, and the staff has been receiving information from the polling stations since 8 am. 

“It is early to speak about the results, but what we see is that polling stations opened at the exact time and the preparation level of the commissions is appropriate,” Garkun said.

He also added that CIS observation commission will declare its final viewpoint on the elections on Monday.

Armenia's Central Electoral Commission (CEC) has registered eight political parties and one electoral bloc for the May 6 parliamentary elections, which will compete for 90 proportional seats in the National Assembly. Besides the three coalition parties - the Republican Party of Armenia, Bargavach Hayastan (Prosperous Armenia) and Orinats Yerkir, there also the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF), Zharangutyun (Heritage), which has a combined list with Free Democrats, the Armenian National Congress (electoral bloc), the Democratic Party of Armenia, the Armenian Communist Party and the United Armenians party that are included in the ballots.

Total of 137 candidates will compete for 41 majoritarian seats in the parliament, and the two precincts will hold uncontested elections.

In compliance with the Electoral Code of Armenia parties should gain at least 5% of votes and a bloc- 7% to receive seats in the parliament. 

The parliamentary elections of the fifth convocation in Armenia will be monitored by 647 international observers of OSCE/ODIHR (258 observers), PACE (37), Inter-parliamentary Assembly of CIS (22), CIS observation mission (151), International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) (3), as well as International Expert Center for Electoral Systems (ICES) (20), European Parliament (12), OSCE Parliamentary Assembly (69), SILBA international organization (16), representatives of the embassies accredited in Armenia (35), representatives of foreign Central Electoral Commissions (24).

CEC has already registered unprecedented number of local election observers – over 31,000. The biggest number of the observers will be from Pan-Armenian Youth Association (5555), and the least ( one observer) – from Rights Information Center. --0--