YEREVAN. - President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan on Monday issued a statement regarding the parliamentary elections held in the country Sunday.

The statement reads as follows:

“Yesterday was a rather important day in the life of our state. We held parliamentary elections, which were more important than all the parliamentary elections which we have had since our independence. Today we made the biggest step towards the implementation of constitutional reforms and shifting from semi-presidential to parliamentary system of governance.

During these elections we saw an unprecedented consolidation of political forces. There was actually no influential political force which was left out of the election struggle. This is another indication of the fact that the construction of our political system pre-defined by the Constitution is on the right track. 

The respectable involvement of the opposition in the parliament will henceforth enable making full use of the entire complex of monitoring tools provided to the opposition in the parliamentary system, this being the main guarantee of balanced, controllable and efficient governance.  

I thank all the citizens of the Republic of Armenia for such an active participation. This is the best indicator of everyone’s involvement and role. I am grateful for this.

I am grateful to our political forces for the active and generally correct political competition. This was a beautiful struggle, which aimed at the collision and juxtaposition of opinions and positions regarding the issue of our country’s development.

I am grateful to our opposition, representatives of public sector and our international partners for supporting in preparation and holding of the elections, reaching political consensus and holding the election process with the most modern technical equipment.  We organized the election process in a new way, which simply left in the past the essential part of the grossest violations observed in election processes. We made a big step forward, a big step towards the future.

I am grateful to all the institutions, the Central Electoral Commission, members of the electoral commissions and all the individuals involved in organizing the elections. You did a great job.

I am grateful for responding to the violations recorded by the law enforcement system very operatively and properly. I am sure that the initiated legal processes will have a regular continuation.

We started April 2 by visiting Yerablur [military cemetery] and incensing the tombs of our heroes, who fell in the Four-day War. We ended April 2 having made a step forward in keeping our promise, which we gave to their tombs. We have promised to build a stronger, more powerful and developing state, and we will build it. We will do that all together.”