STEPANAKERT. – The representatives of International expert Center for Electoral Systems (ICES) have a positive assessment of the Karabakh authorities' moves towards bringing the Electoral Code in accordance with the international standards, ICES president Alexander Tsinker said.

“We believe that full compliance with the law allows in a democratic manner to carry out the processes of expression of the will of its citizens. The day before the election, the so-called day of silence, the observers found no evidence of continuing agitation. On election day, the observers mission visited 52 polling stations,” Tsinker said.

According to the mission, the elections were held under conditions of competitive struggle, with a high voter turnout and in accordance with the main principles and requirements of the international law.

The ICES observation mission comprised of 10 observers from Belgium, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Estonia and Israel.

“However, the mission noted a number of technical difficulties on polling day: a large concentration of voters in a number of areas that complicated the process of control over voting, inconvenience for the people with disabilities in some areas, poor lighting in some places. However, in spite of the noted deficiencies that can not undermine the legitimacy of the voting, the observers are convinced that the elections were successful, and rigging, at the polling stations which were attended by our observers, has not been detected. The process of elections to the National Assembly of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic is an established democratic act of free will of citizens of the republic that is in accordance with the international standards,” said Tsinker.