YEREVAN. - President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan today received the head of the CIS Observation Mission Yevgeny Sloboda.

At the outset of the meeting, Serzh Sargsyan noted that the nationwide referendum on constitutional amendments is an important political event in the history of the country, and it’s good that different international organizations, including the CIS Observation Mission, watched the entire process. The President stressed that Armenia attaches great importance to the neutral and objective assessment of the international observers.

Sargsyan noted with satisfaction that they managed to ensure the publicity and transparency, as well as involvement of political forces in all stages of preparation to the referendum; everything was done to hold the referendum in line with the Armenian legislation and international obligations.  

Head of the CIS Observation Mission presented the conclusion of the Monitoring Mission, which had been made public during the meeting with the press representatives.  Mr Sloboda reiterated that the first and key conclusion of the group is that the citizens were given the possibility to vote freely and express their will at all state levels.

“We felt this when we visited numerous polling stations. I can only say one thing: the voting was held openly and publicly in a free and calm atmosphere,” he said.