Parliamentary elections begin in Armenia

Voting at the parliamentary elections in Armenia began at 08:00 local time on Sunday at 2,009 polling stations throughout the republic.

These elections would be the first polling after the 2015 constitutional reform, which changes the state system to the parliamentary one. The new parliament would be formed up on the multi-party proportional basis, TASS writes.

According to the police, more than 2.5 million citizens have been included in the voters’ register. Armenia’s electoral legislation does not provide for arranging polling stations outside the country. The Armenian nationals staying abroad - diplomats, members of their families, military servicemen and cadets of military schools - took part in the electronic voting online on March 24-26, with 877 people added to the relevant lists. The results of their voting will be taken into account when counting the votes.

More than 28,000 representatives of 49 non-governmental organizations along with international observers from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), the CIS Inter-Parliamentary Assembly, the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly and the European Parliament are monitoring the Armenian elections - the total of 640 international observers.

More than 1,200 Armenian journalists and up to 100 foreign reporters are expected to cover the elections.

The country’s Central Election Commission will publish preliminary results a day after the voting is over - on April 3. Final results would be announced within a week of the elections - before April 9.