The official international observer mission of the International expert Center for Electoral Systems (ICES) considers the presidential election process in Nagorno-Karabakh—or Artsakh—as an established democratic act of expression of will by the republic’s citizens, an act which is consistent with international norms, the aforesaid mission’s chief Alexander Tsinker stated during a press conference on Friday.      

The observers also noted that falsification of election results was not recorded at the polling stations and when the records were being submitted to the Central Electoral Commission. The international observers visited 52 polling stations.   

In addition, the ICES mission expressed its satisfaction with the fact that there were no disturbances during the electoral process, and no one tried to disrupt the voting process and summing up of the results.   

ICES’ statement notes that, overall, the elections were held democratically, with a competition among the presidential candidates, and with a high voter turnout.  

According to them, Artsakh’s elections have complied with the principles and requirements of the international right to vote.

As Armenian News-NEWS.am informed earlier, incumbent NKR President Bako Sahakyan won the elections by receiving a great majority of the votes. According to preliminary figures, Sahakyan received 47,085 votes (66.7%), NKR National Assembly MP Vitali Balasanyan received 22,966 votes (32.5%), and Deputy Director Arkadi Soghomonyan of Academic Activities at the NKR capital Stepanakert Branch of State Agrarian University of Armenia received 594 votes (0.8%).