Alkhas Ghazaryan, a member of the National Assembly’s Civil Contract faction, commenting on assessments from Russia regarding Armenia’s parliamentary elections, said the international community has already recognized the legitimacy of the vote, reports Factor.am .

“I think we should pay a little less attention to which countries such statements come from. We have already received congratulations from many countries starting the day after the elections, and all of them have recognized the legitimacy of the elections. I believe that will continue,” Ghazaryan said.

She was responding to a remark that Russian President Vladimir Putin has not yet congratulated Nikol Pashinyan, while Russian State Duma deputy Konstantin Zatulin has called for non-recognition of the election results in Armenia.

The lawmaker said there is no need to attach particular importance to statements made by individual politicians, regardless of the country from which they originate.

According to Ghazaryan, the opposition has the right to challenge the election results and appeal to the Constitutional Court, but once the process is complete, everyone will accept that the elections were conducted in a free, transparent and legitimate manner.

She also argued that attempts to delegitimize the electoral process before the vote came from opposition forces.

“Before the elections, various schemes were used to delegitimize the process as much as possible, including vote-buying and bringing people to cast directed votes. That was done exclusively by the opposition camp, not by the authorities,” Ghazaryan stated.

The Civil Contract MP emphasized that the final assessment of the elections will be made by the competent body, the Constitutional Court.

“We will wait to see what lawsuits are filed and what decisions are made. I believe other countries will also take those decisions into account,” she noted.

According to Zatulin, Moscow should declare that it does not recognize the election results while continuing to work with Armenia.

“In my view, we should take the position that we do not recognize the results of these elections as fair and objective. However, since we have allied relations with Armenia and traditionally maintain ties, we will continue cooperation, taking into account that the country is currently governed by people who remained in power as a result of elections that were neither fair nor democratic,” Zatulin said.