Pashinyan: Results of the first round of elections in Artsakh reflect  the balance of political forces in the republic

ArmInfo. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan is convinced that the results of the first round of state elections in Artsakh reflect the real balance of  political forces in the republic. He stated this on April 6 during an  online question-answer.

However, according to him, this does not mean at all that there were  no violations during the elections, but they were not so significant  as to affect their results. He stated that one of the candidates -  Arayik Harutyunyan lacked only several hundred votes for a complete  victory, and if there were falsifications, the falsifiers would  ensure these several votes.

The Armenian Prime Minister also recalled that opposition forces  entered the Artsakh parliament in the second and third place, which  also refutes the views on unfair elections.

Pashinyan noted that the elections were not so perfect, however,  Armenia will be next to Artsakh on its path of democratic development  and the voice of the people will always be heard by the authorities.

He also noted that there was neither revolution nor  counter-revolution in Artsakh. If Artsakh is counter- revolutionary  in relation to Armenia, then there will be a revolution. "We are  ready to work closely with the new government and the new parliament  of Artsakh," Pashinyan noted.

It should be noted that on March 31 the presidential and  parliamentary elections were held in the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic  (NKR). According to the NKR Central Election Committee, the second  round of the presidential election will be held in the republic since  none of the presidential candidates scored the required 50% + 1 votes  for the final election victory.  The second round of the presidential  election will be held 14 days after the vote, that is, April 14.

According to preliminary data from the CEC, former Prime Minister  Arayik Harutyunyan won 49.26% of the vote, while Foreign Minister  Masis Mayilyan won 26.4%. In third place is the former secretary of  the Security Council, Vitaly Balasanyan, who scored 14.7%.

Five parties will enter the new parliament of Nagorno-Karabakh. The  majority of votes were gained by the Free Homeland / United Civil  Alliance bloc (40.4%), led by former Prime Minister Arayik  Harutyunyan. United Motherland party - 23.63%, Justice - 7.9%, ARF  Dashnaktsutyun - 6.4% and the Democratic Party of Artsakh - 5.81%  also passed to parliament.

It should be noted that a number of organizations and countries have  already issued a statement in which they emphasized that they do not  recognize the electoral processes in the NKR and stated that these  processes can in no way affect the determination of the final status  of Artsakh or the negotiation process.

To note, a statement was made by the OSCE, EU, NATO, neighboring Iran  and Georgia, the UK, Italy and several other European countries.