YEREVAN. – In an interview with Irates De Facto newspaper, opposition Armenian National Congress MP and former PM Hrant Bagratyan, who is in the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR)—or Artsakh—on an observation mission for the NKR presidential elections on Thursday, noted that he visited the polling stations of the four villages of NKR’s Martakert Region and he did not see any violations.  

‘“We spoke with the opposition candidate’s proxies, they did not point to [any] problems connected with the [voting] lists, election bribe, [and] pressuring,’ the former PM said, and added that the Artsakh elections have no common ground for comparison with Armenia’s recent [parliamentary] elections.   

‘They are different worlds. It’s impossible to compare. Here [in the NKR] no one is complaining about the voting lists, election bribe,’ the opposition figure said. ‘Perhaps the reason is the military situation, which unites the people, perhaps it’s the Artsakh people’s character,’” Irates De Facto quotes Hrant Bagratyan as saying.