ELECTION SECOND ROUND DEMOCRATIC AND ORGANIZED, CIS OBSERVERS SAID

PanARMENIAN.Net - The second round of the presidential elections in Armenia was held in a democratic, organized and legitimate way, in compliance with the requirements of the Electoral Code of Armenia. CIS observation mission statement on the results of the second round of the Armenian presidential elections says. According to the document made public by mission head Yuri Yarov, the open TV debate held between the two candidates in a proper manner had a positive impact for improvement of the situation before the elections. The mission statement also notes cases of biased coverage of the electoral campaign. Moreover, the CIS mission has registered some shortcomings in the course of the second round of the vote. Thus, at some polling stations inaccuracies were not removed from electoral rolls, models for correct filling in of the ballots were absent, transgressions were revealed when counting the grassroots votes including those referring to some electoral commission members' attempts to limit observers' rights. Some commission members were withdrawn from the commissions due to different reasons, including violating the electoral legislation. However, the individual deviations from electoral legislation norms were not of mass nature, some of them were eliminated in the course of the observation and, in the CIS observation mission opinion, did not have a notable impact on the electorate's opportunity to express will on the whole. At the same time, in compliance with the legal requirements the vote returns at some polling places should be assessed by the central electoral commission of Armenia. CIS observation mission representatives visited 216 election centers, a large number of district electoral commission in all regions of Armenia.