The monitors of the Helsinki Committee of Armenia, who have monitored the presidential elections of February 19, state that the voting proceeded in a “normal” way and that the violations were not “essential and didn’t affect the election results.” Yesterday the director of the Helsinki Committee Avetik Ishkhanyan stated about this and added that their monitors were in Shirak, Lori and Tavoush marzes. According to Ishkhanyan he personally visited 15-20 polling stations, where other local and international monitors were present and he hadn’t heard any complaints from them. He was also present at the vote counting process. He stated that the number of signatures and ballots were the same. “The counting was conducted in an absolute transparent manner,” said Ishkhanyan. And the director of the Transparency International Amalya Kostanyan, by presenting the results of the pre-election campaign funding of candidates in Yerevan, Gyumri and Vanadzor, stated that there were candidates, who exceeded the legal requirement of the law not to spend more than 70 million AMD.
