Tuesday, September 20 2016 12:41

ArmInfo.The Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) is satisfied with the results of local elections that took place on September 18, Vice Speaker of the  Armenian Parliament, RPA Spokesperson Eduard Sharmazanov has told  ArmInfo's correspondent.  

He says that nearly 70% of the votes given in favor of the RPA cannot  help satisfying the party. "Any choice of the people deserves  respect, but a 70% vote of confidence is a satisfactory and at the  same time binding factor. We should work harder to justify the  positive expectations of our voters," he says.     

As regards the statements of the opposition and NGOs regarding  electoral fraud, Sharmazanov advises all people having specific facts  about electoral fraud to apply to the authorized structures. "For our  part, we will be taking consistent measures to hold all the offenders  accountable," he notes.    

To note, Armenia's Central Electoral Commission has received 8  requests to recalculate the ballots at 11 polling stations. The  press-service of CEC Armenia reports that 142 more statements related  to the past local elections have been received from observers and  media representatives. Numerous violations were reported as the first  stage of elections to the local self-government was over in 37  communities in Armenia on September 18. In particular, Citizen  Observer and Transparency International report various cases of  violations during the voting, such as ballot-stuffing, voting outside  polling stations, frightening of voters, queues, multiple voting,  obstruction of the activity of journalists and observers.  In the  town of Etchmiadzin, the passions ran so high that one of the  candidates was kidnapped reportedly by the incumbent mayor's  supporters. It is noteworthy that the incumbent mayor Karen Grigoryan  is the son of MP, General Mavel Grigoryan. A criminal case was  initiated on the fact. The beaten candidate for mayor is still in  hospital.  To note, the turnout was 49% throughout the republic.  Overall results of the elections are not known yet.