According to the Central Electoral Commission, 2,587,785 of Armenia’s 1,574,947 eligible voters cast their vote on Sunday or 60.86%, voting for candidates running in nine different parties and alliances.
From 8:00 am until 8:00pm, the Citizen Observer Initiative reported 1918 voter violations. Voting non-confidentially, taking bribes, and opening the polling stations late were some of the irregularities registered by the observers. A Radio Liberty journalist was beaten while trying to investigate voter bribes at a Republican Party candidate office.
Read More: Armenia's Election Day: Violations at the Polls
The election havoc began the night before, around 11 pm, when the Twitter accounts of independent Armenian media organizations, as well as journalists, were suspended.
“Given that they were reinstated rather quickly. I think it was more of a test to see the reaction of the journalists,” Armine Ishkanian, Associate Professor in Social Policy at the London School of Economics, told CivilNet during a Skype interview.
Technological failures continued on election day. Majority of the video cameras, funded by the European Union and installed by Armenia’s Central Electoral Commission to live stream from polling stations, were not functioning correctly throughout the day.
The nine parties and alliances participating in the election include: the Yelk alliance, led by MP’s Nikol Pashinyan and Edmon Marukyan, as well as former prime minister Aram Sargsyan; Ohanyan-Raffi-Oskanyan (ORO) alliance, led by former defence minister Seyran Ohanyan and former foreign ministers Vartan Oskanian and Raffi Hovhannisian; Tsarukyan alliance, led by oligarch and chairman of Prosperous Armenia party Gagik Tsarukyan; Armenian National Congress-People’s Party of Armenia party, led by Armenia’s first president Levon Ter-Petrosyan; Republican Party of Armenia, led by defence minister Vigen Sargsyan; ARF ‘Dashnaktsutyun party, led by member of parliament (MP) Armen Rustamyan; Free Democrats party, led by MP Khachatur Kokobelyan; Armenian Revival party, led by former Parliament speaker and Secretary of Security Council Artur Baghdasaryan; Communist Party of Armenia, led by Tachat Sargsyan.
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