Forecast: The time will tell when the bubble burst into which Artsakh  authorities turned themselves.

ArmInfo. The situation in Artsakh following the March 31 elections is rather strange, it  closely resembles the situation in Armenia following the 2017  parliamentary elections.  A similar opinion was expressed by ArmInfo  Director of the Armenian Center for National Strategic Studies Manvel  Sargsyan.

"The authorities of Artsakh are still hoping, in my opinion, rather  presumptuous that they will be able to ascribe victory to themselves  after the second round of elections. Artsakh residents didn't allow  this to happen after the first round. I am convinced that they will  never allow anyone to wrest their consent to the unjustified  intentions of the authorities. The same will happen when the bubble  bursts into which the Artsakh authorities themselves have turned  themselves, time will tell, "he stressed.

As a result of the presidential elections held in Artsakh on March  31, not one of the candidates won 50% of the vote. With the most  votes in the first round, Araik Harutyunyan - 49.6% and Masis  Mayilyan - 26.7% will have a second round, which, according to the  Constitution, will be held two weeks after the first.  However, on  April 5, Masis Mayilyan called on the Artsakh people to boycott the  second round, making it impossible to carry out the threat of the  spread of the coronavirus.

The parliamentary elections ended with the passage of five political  forces in the Artsakh National Assembly. These are the parties "Free  Homeland", "United Homeland", "Justice", ARF and "Democratic Party of  Artsakh".

Sargsyan recalled that his spokesman announced the victory of  Harutyunyan on the night of April 1, which was even accompanied by an  attempt at a festive fireworks display in Stepanakert. And quite a  few believed that falsification of the election results would allow  Harutyunyan to complete them in the first round, which his supporters  did not hide. Nevertheless, by two o'clock the CEC, citing  preliminary data, announced that Harutyunyan did not have 0.8% of the  vote to win. And, accordingly, announced the second round.

The general perplexity, according to the analyst, provoked  Harutyunyan's instant and unconditional agreement with the  preliminary data of the CEC, which he did not even try to  double-check. Thus, however, only at first glance, the situation  following the election results looked rather mysterious. In reality,  people who tried to end the elections in the first round, using an  administrative, financial resource, deliberately misinforming and  intimidating voters, simply found themselves in an unusual situation.   "All these plans were thwarted by the citizens of Artsakh with their  active civic stance. It was they who clearly demonstrated the  impossibility of dictating their conditions to them by people from  the past. The latter belatedly realized that intimidation, pressure  on citizens through an administrative resource to ascribe to  themselves the victory in the elections today is no longer enough. In  in the most terrible dream, these people couldn't see the situation  when there seemed to be a vote, but it was impossible to declare  victory.  thoughtful attitude towards citizens, especially during the  election period, "the analyst concluded.