Armenians turned out in large numbers to cast their ballots in Sunday’s critical legislative election, yielding a sharp increase in voter participation compared to previous cycles, even as law enforcement agencies scrambled to crack down on a wave of localized voting fraud and criminal violations,Radio Liberty reported.
Surging voter engagement
The voter turnout reached 48.92% by 5:00 p.m. local time, with just three hours remaining before the closing of the polls. This figure represents a notable surge in voter participation compared to the country’s previous parliamentary election, where turnout at the same hour stood at 38.52%.
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In total, some 2.5 million citizens hold legal voting rights in the current election cycle. Polling stations officially closed their doors at 8:00 p.m. local time, and electoral commissions have commenced preparatory operations ahead of the official ballot counting process. The Central Electoral Commission (CEC) is scheduled to begin publishing the initial tranches of voting data later tonight.
Arrests and electoral fraud probes
While the high turnout signals robust public engagement, the electoral process faced numerous security challenges and targeted infractions. As of 5:00 p.m. local time, the Operational Management Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and its dedicated emergency hotlines had logged 57 explicit election-related distress calls.
The ministry’s statement confirmed that law enforcement has already verified and documented several severe categories of criminal interference. 19 distinct cases of multi-voting or ballot-box stuffing were recorded, 15 instances involved the direct violation of voting secrecy.
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