YEREVAN, Armenia, Feb 21 (Xinhua) -- Armenia's foreign ministry has invited a group of experts from the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to observe the upcoming parliamentary elections in the country in April.
Head of the observation mission Jan Peterson told the press on Tuesday that they were planning to refrain from comments at this phase. He also added that they were very well familiar with the current Electoral Code and they had a sufficient number of specialists who were quite capable of giving accurate assessments of the upcoming electoral process in Armenia.
The OSCE/ODIHR mission has carried out a number of observation missions during national elections in Armenia.
Parliamentary elections in Armenia are set to take place on April 2. The official campaign period will kick off on March 5. A total of 9 political parties and party alliances have been officially cleared to enter the race.
For the first time in Armenia's electoral history, fingerprint-scanning technology will be used to identify voters and livestream videos will be available online from most of the polling stations in the country, including the process of vote tallying.
These elections will also mark Armenia's shift from a semi-presidential form of government to a parliamentary republic. With incumbent President Sargsyan's second term running out in April of 2018, many in Armenia eagerly wait to see if he plans on assuming the new role of prime minister in 2018.
