In order to calculate the mandates received by political forces, it must be clear which political forces will enter, and how many votes in favor of each political force are accurate. Chairman of the Central Electoral Commission (CEC) of Armenia, Vahagn Hovakimyan, stated this during a press conference Monday, addressing the question of how many political forces will ultimately enter the country’s National Assembly (parliament) as a result of Sunday’s elections.

“Until the recount is completed, until we summarize the results, we cannot say anything for sure. How is the mandate calculated? The law says the votes in favor of the political forces that have overcome the threshold are multiplied by 101, the resulting number is divided by the sum of the votes in favor of the political forces participating in the distribution of mandates. We do not have the exact numbers; moreover, we do not know whether four political forces will ultimately participate in the distribution of mandates or three, because the overall picture of the votes in favor may change due to this circumstance,” said Hovakimyan.

According to preliminary CEC data, Sunday’s votes were distributed as follows: ruling Civil Contract party – 49.825 percent, Strong Armenia bloc – 23.281 percent, “Armenia” bloc – 9.934 percent, and Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP) – 3.996 percent.

This means that the PAP does not pass the threshold to enter parliament and will not participate in the distribution of mandates. However, the PAP’s votes are very close to 4 percent and if they reach 4 percent, it will participate in the distribution of mandates and get seats in the parliament.