YEREVAN, OCTOBER 1, ARMENPRESS. Armenian President Armen Sarkissian has weighed in on the recent Yerevan City Hall election, praising the conduct of all political parties that accepted the outcome and congratulated the winner.

“Dear countrymen,

The Central Electoral Commission has [issued] the final results of the Yerevan City Council early election. I congratulate on holding the election in line with Constitutional norms and principles,” the president said in an address published by his office.

This is the first step of New Armenia in the direction of fundamental improvement of the electoral process, which can serve as basis for holding next elections in a greater atmosphere of solidarity of public confidence. In this context I highly appreciate the conduct of competing blocs and parties, as well as political forces that did not participate in the election, which accepted the election results and congratulated the winning force.

The high indicators of My Step bloc put a great responsibility on its leaders, namely on the future [Yerevan] mayor. Serious and [busy] work in the [Yerevan] city hall is expected for Prosperous Armenia Party and Luys bloc also, for ensuring the diversity and balance of opinions.

I wish productive work to the new government of Yerevan, for the prosperity of the capital [city] and increase of welfare of its citizens,” the statement said.

The Central Electoral Commission of Armenia convened a sitting on Sunday to sign a final protocol on the Yerevan City Council election.

The commission said that based on the results of re-count it approved the protocol.

The commission also noted that no violations which could’ve impacted the outcome of the election had taken place.

The Yerevan City Council is elected, with the following distribution of mandates:

My Step bloc – 57 seats

Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK) – 5 seats

Luys (Light) bloc – 3 seats

The My Step bloc has won a landslide victory in the September 23 Yerevan City Council elections. My Step’s candidate for Yerevan Mayor is Hayk Marutyan.

Preliminary counts of all precincts showed a massive 81,06% victory for My Step. 294,109 people voted for the alliance.

The Prosperous Armenia Party is the runner-up with only 6,95%, or 25,219 votes.

Luys (Light) bloc won 4,99%, or 18,112 votes.

The ARF garnered only 5882 votes (1,61%).

848,343 people were eligible to vote in the election, but the turnout was a bit over 360,000.

 Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan