Agence France Presse — English
May 12, 2007 Saturday 3:11 PM GMT
Polls close in Armenian parliamentary election
Polls closed Saturday in Armenia’s parliamentary election, seen as a
key test of democracy in this small ex-Soviet country.
Voter turnout had reached 45.8 percent three hours before polls
closed at 8 pm local time (1500 GMT), the Central Elections
Commission said. Final turnout figures were due within an hour. No
minimum turnout was required for the vote to be valid.
About 2.3 million of Armenia’s three million people were registered
to vote for 131 seats in the National Assembly. Preliminary results
are expected within 24 hours.
Hundreds of local and international observers monitored the vote,
including more than 300 from the Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe.
No election has been judged free and fair in Armenia since its
independence with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.