YEREVAN, APRIL 6, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan holds the position that the elections in Artsakh reflect the existing power ration in Artsakh, ARMENPRESS reports PM Pashinyan said in a Facebook Live, answering a question of a citizen.

Speaking about the remarks that the elections were not fair in Artsakh, Nikol Pashinyan said, ''No one says that there were no frauds. The question is to what extent those frauds had an impact on the results of the elections. Let's look at numbers. If we are speaking about frauds some, one of the candidates, Arayik Harutyunyan, fall short of some hundreds votes to record victory in the 1st stage. If the elections are rigged, would any fraud machine stand in front of some hundreds votes? Opposition forces took the 2nd and 3rd places in the parliamentary elections. You would never see such a thing in Armenia when the elections were rigged here. If they do that, why do they do it in a way that the opposition, by the way I have to say a tough opposition, takes the 2nd and 3rd places? They would rig it in a way that forces loyal to the authorities would take at least the 2nd place, and many issues would be solved by that’’.

Pashinyan noted that the elections in Artsakh were not ideal, and Armenia should continue supporting Artsakh in its future democratization.

Presidential and parliamentary elections took place in Artsakh on March 31. No candidate received over 50% votes and a second stage has been scheduled on April 14. The competition will be between President of «Free Motherland» party Arayik Harutyunyan and the current Foreign Minister Masis Mayilyan.

Edited and translated by Tigran Sirekanyan