13:06, 13 December 2015

Armenian CEC announces final results of referendum

The building of the Armenian CEC. Photo: RFE/RL

According to final estimates, 63.37% of people voted in favour of the constitutional reforms in Armenia. This has been announced by the Central Election Commission (CEC) of Armenia. 4.1% of ballots declared invalid.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on December 6, the voting at the Armenian referendum took place against the background of complaints about massive violations committed at electoral precincts. According to the preliminary data of the Armenian CEC, 63.35% of voters (825,622 people) support the constitutional reforms, and 32.35% of voters (421,593 people) voted against them.

According to the draft of the constitutional reforms, Armenia is in a transition to a parliamentary system of power, in which the president will be elected by the Parliament for seven years and will be deprived of the right to be re-elected. The project was approved by the Venice Commission; however, not all of its recommendations were taken into account.

Ballots were recounted at 53 electoral precincts. As a result of the recounting, the number of votes supporting the constitutional reforms reduced by 30 votes, and the number of votes against the reforms by 42 votes, the "Interfax" reports with reference to Tigran Mukuchyan, Chairman of the CEC of Armenia.

Let us remind you that earlier, the Armenian CEC has dismissed all the motions for recognition of the referendum results as null and void. On December 1, the opposition regularly holds protest actions against the referendum results.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.