European people’s party president congratulates Serzh Sargsyan on his victory in ‘best-ever organized polls’

YEREVAN, February 20. / ARKA /. After Armenia’s Central Election Commission (CEC) announced the incumbent president Serzh Sargsyan as the winner of the February 18 presidential election, president of the European People’s Party (EPP), Wilfried Martens, sent a congratulatory message to Serzh Sargsyan on his victory, in which he says, in particular.

 “I warmly congratulate President Sargysan for his election victory and I look forward to personally congratulating him at the Enlarged EPP Summit of March 14th. Also, I am pleased with the fact that these elections were the country’s best-ever organized and were mostly in line with international standards, as stated by the international election observation missions (OSCE, CoE, EP, ODHIR). I am confident that the country’s democratization process will be further enhanced under the leadership of President Sargysan.

This victory represents clear support from the citizens for the democratic, economic, and legal reforms undertaken by President Sargysan and an encouragement for their continuation. Moreover, Armenia is now a role model for other Eastern Partnership countries, in view of its successful Association Agreement negotiations with the EU. The EPP strongly supports the European path of Armenia since Europe and Armenia share a common heritage and common values and will surely share a common future.”

According to the preliminary results of the February 18 polls, Armenia’s incumbent president Sezrh Sargsyan won re-election with 861,378 votes or 58.64% of the vote. Raffi Hovannisian polled 539,674 votes or 36.74%, Hrant Bagratyan - 31,643 votes or 2.15%, Paruyr Hayrikyan - 18,093 votes or 1.23%, Andrias Ghukasyan - 8,328 votes or 0.57%, Arman Melikyan - 3,520 votes or 0.24% and Vardan Sedrakyan – 6,203 votes or 0.42%.  -0-