All news

Voting at Armenia’s constitutional referendum over

The voter turnout was 50.51%, hairman of the referendum’s central election commission said

YEREVAN, December 6. /TASS/. Voting at Armenia’s constitutional referendum is over as all the 1,997 polling stations closed at 20:00 local time on Sunday.

"The voting was held in normal conditions in a calm atmosphere," a spokesman for Armenia’s Central Election Commission told TASS.

The voter turnout at Armenia’s constitutional referendum on Sunday was 50.51%, chairman of the referendum’s central election commission Tigran Mukuchyan said, citing preliminary results.

The voter turnout in the capital city of Yerevan was 45.93%, he said.

The highest turnout of 66.33% was reported from the Ararat region southeast of Yerevan, the lowest (41.28%) - in the Shirak region in Armenia’s northwest.

Armenia held a referendum on the constitutional reform to switch to the parliamentary form of government. Constitutional amendments were initiated by Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan. After having referred the draft reform to the parliament, he held a series of consultations with most of the country’s political parties. According to Sargsyan, the reform "will make cooperation between different branches of government more effective, establish the basis for the country’s more intensive economic development, increase the level of human rights protection and boost the institutional role of the opposition."

Under the law, a referendum is valid regardless of the voter turnout. However, a draft put for a referendum is considered adopted should it win more than a half votes but not less than a fourth of eligible voters.