Armenian interior ministry takes up verification of 'Russian trace' in elections

In connection with the elections, Armenia's Interior Ministry is investigating a number of episodes related to the participation in voting of citizens of the country who arrived from Russia.

Interior Minister Arpine Sarkissian stated this at a briefing.

"At the moment I would not like to disclose details, however all these cases are in our field of attention. A number of individuals were detained in the presence of signs of influence on the free expression of will of voters," the minister stated.

She added that, if necessary, stricter measures of procedural influence may be applied to the individuals involved.

According to Sarkissian, the current electoral legislation provides political forces with sufficient mechanisms to monitor the voting process. In particular, authorized representatives of candidates and parties are present at polling stations, and vote counting is carried out under video surveillance and in live broadcast mode.

The minister also commented on statements about violations during the elections.

"There were quite a few such statements, however I have not seen a single one that was supported by specific facts. When we suggested that their authors file an official report of a crime, they refused," she noted.

Parliamentary elections in Armenia took place on June 7. According to preliminary results, the ruling Civil Contract party led by Nikol Pashinyan received 49.825% of the votes. The opposition bloc Strong Armenia of Samvel Karapetyan received 23.281%. The Armenia bloc led by former president Robert Kocharyan, which received 9.934% of the votes, also cleared the threshold.

According to preliminary data, the Prosperous Armenia party received 3.996% of the votes. It fell short of entering the National Assembly by 0.004 percentage points.

Source: Sputnik Armenia