YEREVAN. – The members of Armenia’s Central Electoral Commission (CEC) on Tuesday signed the protocol of the preliminary results of Monday’s presidential election.

In line with preliminary data, and as a result of the tally of the ballots that were cast in Armenia’s 1,988 polling precincts, incumbent President Serzh Sargsyan received 861,378 votes (58.64%), Raffi Hovannisian garnered 539,674 votes (36.74%), Hrant Bagratyan gathered 31,643 votes (2.15%), Paruyr Hayrikyan earned 18,093 votes (1.23%), Andreas Ghukasyan gained 8,328 votes (0.57%), Arman Melikyan collected 3,520 votes (0.24%), and Vardan Sedrakyan acquired 6,203 votes (0.42%).

Also in line with CEC data, the total number of eligible voters was 2,529,016, and 1,521,931—or 61.18 percent—of them cast their ballots.

The regional electoral commissions were given 2,579,000 ballots, whose 1,052,269 were used, and 50,992 ballots were declared invalid.

Note that Presidential Elections were held in Armenia on Monday, and the seven candidates that ran in the voting were: Ruling Republican Party leader and incumbent President Serzh Sargsyan, opposition Heritage Party Chairman and former FM Raffi Hovannisian, opposition Freedom Party Chairman and former PM Hrant Bagratyan, opposition National Self-Determination Union Chairman Paruyr Hayrikyan, Nagorno-Karabakh Republic former FM Arman Melikyan, “Radio Hay” Company Manager and political scientist Andreas Ghukasyan, and non-party affiliate and epic poetry specialist Vardan Sedrakyan.