The upcoming nationwide elections in Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) will feature 12 presidential runners and six political forces.
A total of 133 candidates from the Artsakh Conservative party (16), United Fatherland (62), National Renaissance (20), the Armenian Revolutionary Federation-Dashnaksutyun (33), the Artsakh Democratic Party (33) and Justice party (35) will vie for seats for the country’s National Assembly, the Central Electoral Commission (CEC) reports.
The voters in the second Armenian republic will head to polls on March 31 to elect a new parliament and a president.
The registered presidential contenders, as of Saturday afternoon, are Ruslan Israyelyan (Generation of Independence party), Vitaly Balasanyan (Justice party), Forerign Minister Masis Mayilyan (self-nominee), Sergey Amiryan (self-nominee), David Babayan (Conservative Party of Artsakh), David Ishkhanyan (Armenian Revolutionary Federation-Dashnaksutyun), Ashot Ghulyan (Artsakh Democratic Party), Christine Balayan (self-nominee), Hayk Khanumyan (National Renaissance), Arayik Harutyunyan (Free Fatherland – United Civil Alliance, bloc), Bella Lalayan (self-nominee), Melsik Poghosyan (self-nominee).
The deadline for submitting the bids to the CEC is 6:00pm local time Saturday.