Armenian PM promises punishment for violations during constitutional referendum

 Prime Minister of Armenia Hovik Abrahamyan promised to punish everyone who committed violations during the Constitutional referendum.
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If there were violations, the people committed such unlawful actions will be punished. They did disfavor to the authorities," the prime minister told reporters in Gyumri.  

At the same, Abrahamyan said, by preliminary data, 63% of the voters supported the constitutional amendments, which is a significant difference.

According to the preliminary data of the CEC, 825,851 citizens or 63.35% of total voters supported the Constitutional amendments.  421,600 people voted against which is 32.35% of total voters.  A total of 53,332 ballot papers were recognized null and void. The turnout made up 50.51% or 1,303,466 people.  Earlier, Head of "No" Headquarters, Vice Chairman of the Armenian National Congress Levon Zurabyan said 500,000 votes were rigged. Heritage Party Leader Raffi Hovannisian called the violations at the referendum "high treason."

Arthur Sakunts, the head of the Helsinki Citizen's Assembly Vanadzor Office told reporters on December 7 the data of Central Electoral Commission (CEC) on the Constitutional referendum do not correspond to reality.  

Representative of the European Platform for Democratic Elections (EPDE) Lene Wetteland, in turn, said the voting outcome cannot be considered legitimate, as it does not reflect the public will.  She said the Republican Party exerted high pressure on both journalists and observers.
Yesterday, immediately after the referendum, New Armenia Front marched to the CEC but the Police prevented them from approaching the building. The opposition demanded the CEC to recognize the vote results invalid.