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Armenia is the only state among the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) that has introduced election innovations, the likes of voter registration technical equipment, Sergey Lebedev, the head of the CIS observation mission during Armenia's April 2 parliamentary elections told a press conference on Friday.

“We hope the application of those innovative technical equipment, the new methodology of the voting will secure calm and organized elections,” noted the head of the CIS observation mission, stressing CIS observers are set to attend polling stations in all regions of Armenia to monitor the vote, including the balloon counting.

In his words around 20 observers from 8 CIS states have been in Armenia since March 14, while the short-term observers will join the mission soon.

Lebedev next underlined that the mission should come up with objective assessment without interference into the host country’s domestic affairs.

“We are not aimed at digging into shortcomings [of the voting process] and raise them. It remains important for us to assist the organizers of the elections through, let’s call it, friendly recommendations on certain aspects of the process. We have managed to visit 8 regions of Armenia and held meetings with heads of precinct electoral commissions, while in Yerevan our team members are actively engaged with their work. That is to say, we have certain understanding how the preparation of the elections is being made,” Lebedev said, adding the media coverage of the pre-election campaign is not out of their glance.

In Lebedev’s assessment, post-election publication of the signed voter lists, prescribed by Armenia’s new Electoral Code, is another positive step made possible by the public demand and the desire to hold transparent elections.