YEREVAN -- Official results indicate that President Serzh Sarkisian's ruling Republican Party of Armenia has won about half the votes cast in parliamentary elections that international observers said were "tainted" by reports of vote-buying and pressure on voters. The Central Election Commission said on April 3 said that with ballots counted from almost all precincts in the April 2 vote, the Republican Party had won 49.15 percent and the center-right Tsarukian alliance, led by Russia-friendly tycoon Gagik Tsarukian, had 27.37 percent. Under constitutional changes approved in a 2015 referendum, the Armenian prime minister's office will become more powerful while the presidency is to become a largely ceremonial post elected by parliament. (Sergei Chirikov/Pool Photo via AP, file)

YEREVAN, Armenia (AP) — Armenians voted Sunday in the country's first parliamentary election since the ex-Soviet nation modified its constitution to expand the powers of parliament and the prime minister. Sarksyan, 62, leader of the RPA and president since 2008, has repeatedly denied the constitutional changes were engineered to allow him to retain influence in the former Soviet republic after his final presidential term ends next year. An exit poll by Baltic Surveys/The Gallup Organization, reported by Armenian television shortly after polls closed, put RPA at 46 percent of votes cast, with Tsarukyan's Alliance at 25 percent and Dashnaktsutyun at 5 percent.
Voters in Armenia go to the polls for an election, the first since constitutional changes were approved in a referendum in 2015, which changed the country's governance from a semi-presidential system to a parliamentary republic. Opinion polls predict a tight race between the nationalist Republican Party, led by President Serzh Sargsyan, and the centre-right Prosperous Armenia, led by Gagik Tsarukyan. With votes from 64% of the polling stations counted, the Republican Party leads with 49.7% of votes.