YEREVAN. The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) delegation members, who were carrying out an observation mission during the referendum on constitutional amendments in the Republic of Armenia (RA), wrote about several voting irregularities in their initial report on the course of this plebiscite, Zhoghovurd daily reported.

“Zhoghovurd learned that this fact has deeply concerned the RA authorities; the [PACE] delegation’s [respective] statement was a surprise for them.

“That is why NA [i.e. National Assembly] Vice-Speaker, head of the Armenian delegation to PACE, Hermine Naghdalyan, was instructed to make every effort and ‘work so that the PACE final report would have a softer content,” Zhoghovurd wrote.

The referendum on Armenia’s constitutional amendments was conducted on December 6.

Pursuant to these amendments, the country will make a transition from a semi-presidential to a parliamentary system of governance, and conduct completely proportional parliamentary elections.

According to preliminary data by the Central Electoral Commission, a total of 63.35 percent of the voters said “yes” to these amendments, whereas 32.35 percent voted “no” in this plebiscite.