Parliamentary elections should instill trust among citizens, president says

PanARMENIAN.Net - Armenia is switching to a new system of governance, and it’s extremely important for the parliamentary elections to be perceived as credible among citizens and partners, president Serzh Sargsyan said on Monday, April 3.

Sargsyan was meeting the CIS observation mission members who had monitored the elections on Sunday, as well as mission chief Sergey Lebedev.

The president said a lot of work has been carried out to hold elections in line with international standards.

Also, Sargsyan expressed confidence that the CIS mission of professional observers will submit a balanced, unbiased report which will boost the continuous improvement of electoral processes in Armenia.

Lebedev said, in turn, that a great number of local observers participated in the elections, “which is an unprecedented development.”

Based on results calculated in all the 2009 polling stations, the Republican party leads with 49.12% of votes (771 247 ballots), followed by the Tsarukyan bloc with 27.32% (428 965), YELQ with 7.77% (122 049) and the ARF Dashnaktsutyun with 6.57% (103 173).

According to the CEC, the other five political forces didn’t overcome the election threshold and secured no seats at the National Assembly.

1 574 947 out of 2 557 706 (60.86%) eligible voters cast ballots Sunday, April 2.