Arayik Harutyunyan elected president of unrecognized Karabakh
YEREVAN. April 15 (Interfax) - Former Prime Minister of the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR) Arayik Harutyunyan won the runoff presidential election held on Tuesday.
"Arayik Harutyunyan gained 88% of the vote, and Masis Mailyan got 12%," Karabakh Central Elections Commission Chairperson Sbrui Arzumanyan said at a press conference on Wednesday.
The runoff election was held in the midst of the coronavirus emergency situation in Karabakh.
The first round of the election took place on March 31, but none of the presidential candidates gained 50% of the vote.
Harutyunyan, who gained 49.26% of the vote in the first round of the election in late March, and Mailyan, who gained 26.4% of the vote, stood in the runoff election.
Mailyan urged voters not to come to polls because of the coronavirus.
The NKR Central Elections Commission said that Mailyan would not cast his ballot.
According to the NKR operative headquarters, six cases of Covid-19 have been identified in the republic so far.
The republic declared the emergency situation till 10 p.m. on May 12.