218 members of the electoral committees for the parliamentary elections in Armenia did not show up at their relevant constituencies on May 6 morning, chairman of the Central Electoral Committee (CEC) Tigran Mukuchyan said.

According to him, heads of committees appointed other committee members in compliance with the regulations, and all committees are full now.

“All 1982 polling stations in Armenia’s 41 constituencies were ready at 8.a.m. and opened on time,” CEC chairman stated.

Parliamentary elections feature 8 political parties, Republican Party of Armenia (RPA), Prosperous Armenia, ARF Dashnaktsutyun (ARFD), Orinats Yerkir, Heritage, Democratic Party of Armenia (DPA), Communist Party of Armenia and United Armenian party, as well as one election bloc represented by opposition Armenian National Congress (ANC).

Armenian National Congress (ANC) must overcome 7% threshold as a bloc, unlike the parties, which need 5% threshold level.

647 international and over 31 thous. local observers will monitor the parliamentary elections in Armenia. OSCE/ODIHR (258 observers), OSCE Parliamentary Assembly (69), PACE (37), CIS Interparliamentary Assembly (22), as well as International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) and SILBA international organization have deployed observer missions in Armenia.

The preliminary results will be published no later than 24 hours after the voting, with final results to be released on the seventh day starting the voting day.