Free Democrats leader votes “for a new Armenia”

PanARMENIAN.Net - Leader of Free Democrats party Khachatur Kokobelyan voted for a new Armenia and the future of the Armenian people.

“Let us hope these elections will enable us to change the reality in Armenia, in terms of politics, economy and also lawfulness,” he told the journalists after casting his ballot at 10/07 polling station.

Head of the party has so far no data on any significant violation and hopes the elections will further proceed smoothly.

According to Kokobelyan, Free Democrats and Heritage have proxies at all polling stations and hopes this will secure free and fair process of elections.

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).

To enter the parliament, 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.