YEREVAN. - Foreign Minister of Armenia Edward Nalbandian on Monday received the heads of a number of delegations conducting observation mission in the Armenian parliamentary elections. Among the guests were the Special Coordinator and Head of the OSCE short-term observer mission Ignacio Sanchez, head of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly delegation Geir Jorgen Bekkevold,   head of the OSCE/ODIHR observation mission Jan Petersen, head of the PACE mission Liliane Maury-Pasquier, head of the European Parliament delegation Heidi Hautala and  OSCE/ODIHR Director Michael Georg Link.

The guests presented their preliminary conclusions and observations to the FM. They praised the democratic reforms carried out in the country. The guests welcomed the adoption of the new Electoral Code, stressing that despite the omissions mentioned in the preliminary reports, the elections were well-organized.

At the meeting, FM Nalbandian noted that the elections were vey important in terms of shifting to the parliamentary system of governance. From this standpoint, at all the stages of implementing reforms the Armenian authorities closely cooperated with the international partners, who praised that process. Nalbandian also stressed that the electoral process reforms were aimed at holding free and fair elections, the held elections being indicative of this.

The Armenian FM especially stressed the inclusive nature of drawing up the Electoral Code with the participation of all the representatives of political forces and civil society, this being an essential step towards the further strengthening of public confidence to the electoral process. 

In the FM’s words, the insurance of fundamental freedoms, proper organization of electoral processes, significant improvement of the voter list accuracy,  creation of equal and competitive conditions for political forces, application of new technical equipment, insurance of secret ballot and transparency of vote counting greatly contributed to the success of the electoral process.

Furthermore, he added that the publication of post-election voter lists for the purpose of additional transparency of electoral processes was unprecedented. Nalbandian noted that the state encouraged and in no way restricted the involvement of observers, whose number amounted to about 30,000. Moreover, nearly 1,200 journalists were accredited to cover the elections.

The heads of observation missions thanked for the invitation to observe the elections. They expressed satisfaction with the favorable working conditions provided by the Armenian authorities, as well as close cooperation.

Both sides underscored the importance to the further cooperation in the sphere of electoral processes.