Yerkir Tsirani (Land of Apricot) party, which secured five seats after elections to the Yerevan City Council, demanded on Tuesday, May 16 that the Central Electoral Commission of Armenia annul the results of elections.

In a letter addressed to the CEC chairman Tigran Mukuchyan, party representative Armen Gabrielyan argued that the police and the Republican Party (RPA) carried out “a large-scale fraud operation,” which included vote-buying cases and use of violence against MP Zaruhi Postanjyan and one of her proxies.

Postanjyan leads the newly-announced party and sought to become the mayor of Yerevan.

According to the letter, thousands of ballots featured check marks in front of RPA’s name.

The majority of observers monitoring the elections represented the ruling Republican Party, the letter added.

According to preliminary results, RPA will have 46 seats at the Yerevan City Council after securing 71.25% of votes. Coming in the second is YELQ bloc with 14 mandates (21%), while the recently-announced Yerkir Tsirani (Land of Apricot) party has five seats (7.75%).

Taron Margaryan from RPA is thus re-elected the mayor of the Armenian capital.