YEREVAN.- The upcoming presidential election in Armenia will be the first presidential election held under the Electoral Code adopted in May 2011, says an interim report issued by OSCE/ODIHR Election Observation Mission.

“The new Code was previously assessed as comprehensive and generally providing a sound basis for the conduct of democratic elections. At the same time, there are still areas where it could benefit from improvement,” the report says.

Overall the report is introducing Armenia’s election system not giving any assessments.

The observers touch upon parliamentary election held last May. “Some violations of campaign provisions by electoral contestants, including the use of administrative resources and attempts to limit voters’ freedom of choice, created an unequal playing field and ran counter to OSCE commitments,” the observers recall.

The report informs about meetings of the observers with local officials, as well as about the pre-campaign environment.

“In the period before the official start of the campaign, campaign activities were mainly conducted through online media and social networks. Most candidates made public statements about the importance of the upcoming election, while two of them reportedly advocated the boycott of the election.”

The OSCE/ODIHR Election Observation Mission headed by Heidi Tagliavini started monitoring activities in Armenia on January 10. It was reported that  24 long-term observers and 250 short-term observers will be deployed throughout the country.