Second Round of Elections to be Held in Artsakh

The total number of voters for the presidential elections in Artsakh is 104,348, while the number of participants in the voting has reached 76,728. This was announced earlier by the President of the Artsakh Central Electoral Commission, Smbat Arzumanyan, clarifying that, at first glance, there may seem to be a discrepancy, but these figures are formed by the inclusion of additional lists, when there can be a certain difference between the previously declared number and the number received from the polling centers.

"Everything is within the framework of the electoral code. These numbers mean that 73.5% of the voters participated in the presidential elections. I repeat, these data are the results of tabulation," said Arzumanyan.

He informed that the number of invalid ballots amounted to 2,625. This indicates that 3.5% of voters filled out their ballots incorrectly and were deemed invalid.

He presented the number of votes received by the candidates:

• Kristine Balayan - 202 votes or 0.3%
• Vitali Balasanyan - 10,755 votes or 14.7%
• Sergey Amiryan - 106 votes or 0.2%
• David Babayan - 587 votes or 0.8%
• Bella Lalayan - 162 votes or 0.2%
• Arayik Harutyunyan - 36,076 votes or 49.26%
• Hayk Khanumyan - 962 votes or 1.3%
• David Ishkhanian - 1,873 votes or 2.56%
• Vahan Badazyan - 743 votes or 1%
• Masis Mayilyan - 19,360 votes or 26.4%
• Ashot Ghulyan - 1,683 votes or 2.3%
• Ruslan Israelian - 368 votes or 0.5%
• Ashot Dadayan - 198 votes or 0.3%
• Melsik Poghosyan - 141 votes or 0.2%

Thus, none of the candidates has surpassed the 50% + 1 vote threshold of support for all candidates, which means that a second round of presidential elections must be held in Artsakh. According to electoral legislation, the second round of elections must take place 14 days after the voting day, which in this case is scheduled for April 14.