Azernews.Az

By Sabina Idayatova

The parliamentary faction of the opposition Armenian National Congress (ANC) has criticized the February 18 presidential election, saying the government "used the full potential to falsify the results' and the tallies "don't correspond to reality".

"Today, people have only one main goal and that is to restore constitutional order in the country and prevent the appropriation of votes and power of the people by the regime," it said in a statement.

Seven candidates had joined the election race in Armenia. The Central Election Commission (CEC) announced the final election tallies on Monday. According to official data, incumbent President Serzh Sargsyan won with 58.64 percent of the votes. The leader of Heritage party Raffi Hovannisyan ranked second with 36.74 percent.

Meanwhile, the CEC rejected the Heritage leader's bid to recognize the registration of Sargsyan's candidacy as invalid.

Explaining his position, Hovannisyan said that the money spent on over 1,000 campaign staff and publication of posters had not been included in Sargsyan's pre-election expenses declaration.

Protesters opposing the final results of the elections held a rally in front of the CEC, chanting slogans that labeled the election as rigged, condemned electoral fraud and called on the OSCE not to recognize "the criminal oligarchic regime and fake elections'.

Also, students protesting the incumbent Armenian regime gathered outside the central campus of the Yerevan State University, chanting slogans like 'All rise!' and 'Long live justice!', local media reports. Over 500 protesting students refused to attend classes until their demands are met.