YEREVAN. - Referendum on constitutional amendments has kicked off in Armenia today at 8:00 am (PHOTOS).

The citizens will vote in 1997 polling stations located throughout the republic.

The referendum which is the third one in the history of independent Armenia, will last till 8:00 pm, following which the vote count will start. 

According to the information provided by the Armenian police, the number of voters included in the voter lists is 2,550,323. Armenia's Central Electoral Commission (CEC) will present the situation on the number of the voters taking part in the voting every three hours.

The referendum on constitutional amendments will be observed by 18 local and 4 international organizations, specifically Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) observation mission (44 observers), CIS Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (23 observers), the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) (11 observers) and OSCE/ODIHR (5  observers).

33 observers will be from other countries’ central election commissions, seven observers being from embassies accredited in Armenia.

Pursuant to the Armenian legislation, the referendum is held on a non-working day.

Following the independence of Armenia, the first Constitution was adopted on 5 July 1995, which is marked as a Constitution Day every year. It was amended in 2005, and the country switched from the presidential form of governance to the semi-presidential one. Under the draft amendments put on referendum, the country will shift to the parliamentary form of governance.