TI states gross violations at Armenian referendum

Varuzhan Oktanyan, Executive Director of the Anti-Corruption Centre of the Transparency International (TI) has stated today at a press conference in Yerevan that gross violations were fixed at the recent referendum in Armenia, namely: facts of intimidation, non-registration of violations and other falsifications.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on December 6, Armenia held voting at the referendum on the constitutional reform project. Accoding to the Central Election Commision, the voter turnout reached 50.51%, while 63.35% of the votes gave their voices in favour of the constitutional reform.

"We've fixed more than 900 various violations," said Varuzhan Oktanyan, adding that the website elections.trancparency.am contains detailed information about violations at the referendum, the NEWS.am reports.

Oktanyan also said that the 78 complaints, officially received in the course of the referendum on constitutional reforms, do not reflect the real picture of violations.

He stressed that his centre has mainly focused on the complaints from those polling stations, where the votes "for" significantly exceeded the votes "against". However, Varuzhan Oktanyan said that the Transparency International is in no hurry to make conclusions about the transparency and legitimacy of the referendum, the "News-Armenia" writes.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.