ArmInfo.European Parliament Deputy, Euro Parliament mission head in Armenia Heidi Hautala noted the violations during Armenian parliamentary elections on April 2, Svoboda radio reports.
"Unfortunately, I have to note that our observations on the Election Day were not always positive. We noticed parties' representatives, who interfered the electoral process, from the polling stations to counting votes. We saw that their attendance had an influence to the voters, and even we personally did not see deals, our local colleagues explained to us how the electoral bribery system works", Hautala said.
According to the Euro Parliament Deputy, the most upsetting observation was voting of mentally sick persons in psychiatric center. "We saw clearly that the doctors and members of Electoral Committee did everything that the patients vote for one party and one territorial candidate, even if the voters wanted to vote for another candidate", she said. Hautala also stressed that the trust of Armenian voters to electoral process is essential, and in this context is very important the help of European Union and the rope of civil society.
"Agreement between Armenia and EU, which was recently initialed and which should be confirmed by Euro Parliament, may give opportunity to solve these issues", the head of the mission said.
To note, according to CEC data 1 mln 575 thousand citizens (60.93%)from 2. 587.706 took part in the elections. The Parliament will have 105 lawmakers. The ruling Republican Party of Armenia receives 58 mandates, three from which representatives of national minorities (Assyrian, Kurds and Yezid), Tsaroukyan bloc 31 mandates, 1 representative from Russian community, Yelk-9, ARFD Dashnaktsutyun 7 mandates. Pre electoral bloc ANC-PPA did not enter the Parliament, as it received only 1.65% votes.