Today Armenia is holding the referendum on constitutional amendments. 1878 polling stations throughout the republic as well as 44 polling stations in 40 cities of 28 states (totally 1922 stations) opened this morning. High turnout is a necessary condition for the adoption of the constitutional amendments. To pass they need to be backed by at least one third of all eligible voters, which makes 767 000 votes out of the total number of 2 301 828. By order of the Central Electoral Commission (CEC) 2 334 300 ballot-papers were printed, IA Regnum reports.
As earlier PanARMENIAN.Net reporter from the CEC press office, over 10 000 observers from 11 Armenian political parties, 24 NGOs and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe will watch the referendum. As for the fact that Armenia has not sent an invitation to the OSCE, the CEC press office said the organization representatives will not monitor the event, since the OSCE mandate includes observation of parliamentary and presidential election but not of referenda.
It should be reminded that Chief of the OSCE Office in Yerevan Vladimir Pryakhin stated earlier that the decision on whether to invite OSCE observers to monitor the referendum on constitutional amendments in Armenia is the country’s sovereign affair. In his words, according to paragraph 8 of Copenhagen Document, the authorities are not obliged to invite OSCE observers.
