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Akbar Novruz

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Voting in the parliamentary elections in Armenia has officially concluded, with opposition forces alleging numerous violations during the electoral process, while the ruling authorities rejected the accusations, AzerNEWS reports.

The "Civil Contract" party, led by Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, has won 56.7 percent of the vote in the parliamentary elections.

This was reported in the exit poll conducted at the request of Armenia's ruling party.

It was also reported that the "Strong Armenia" party, founded by Russian businessman of Armenian origin Samvel Karapetyan, won the support of 17.5 percent of voters. The results of other political forces were not reported.

According to Armenia’s Ministry of Internal Affairs, 14 individuals had been detained by 5:00 p.m. local time in connection with alleged election-related violations.

The ministry stated that authorities reviewed information regarding 198 alleged incidents, including reports circulated in the media and on social platforms during the elections.

The opposition Armenia Alliance claimed that multiple irregularities had been recorded, including open voting, directed voting and controlled voting practices.

At the same time, correspondents from Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported that election officials and independent observers had also raised concerns regarding alleged violations at polling stations.

The “Independent Observer” monitoring initiative, which operated across 1,420 polling stations, stated that various violations were documented in 387 of them.

Meanwhile, Arayik Harutyunyan, chief of staff to Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, assessed the elections positively, describing the voting process as “very good.”

Harutyunyan also accused certain political forces and media outlets of creating unnecessary tension and exaggerating election-related incidents.