In 48 of 2005 polling stations, we had 50 absences from election precinct members, two of whom were chairperson and one was a secretary. For example, the absence of twp chairpersons and one secretary is due to criminal proceedings. Chairman of the Central Electoral Commission (CEC) of Armenia, Vahagn Hovakimyan, announced this during his first press conference today.

“They were arrested at night. We also have a case where the mother of a [election] precinct chairperson died at night. The problem is related to the human factor. There were also technical problems in some polling stations, when the machine printed the coupon and there was the voter’s serial number, while one or two digits were different in the list. In this case where there was such a problem, the voter was instructed to sign in front of his name.

The Electoral Code [of Armenia] allows continuing working even if there are absences; if necessary, new [election precinct] members are appointed,” the CEC chairman added.

Parliamentary elections are underway Sunday in Armenia, in which 2 blocs and 16 parties are participating. A total of 2,485,851 Armenian citizens have the right to vote in these elections.