Leaders of the Artarutiun election bloc told journalists in Yerevan on 27 May that they do not recognize the validity of official returns showing that Prime Minister Andranik Markarian\'s Republican Party of Armenia (HHK) polled the largest number of votes in the parliamentary elections two days earlier. People\'s Party of Armenia Chairman Stepan Demirchian told RFE/RL that \"it\'s...obvious that the bloc\'s votes were reduced.\" In an allusion to the presidential poll earlier this year in which he lost in the second round to incumbent President Robert Kocharian, Demirchian added that \"this was yet another disappointing and disgraceful election.\" National Democratic Union Chairman Vazgen Manukian, who similarly lost a disputed presidential runoff in 1996, said, \"The elections were thoroughly falsified with the same techniques as in the past.\" He said he believes Artarutiun should now campaign for the referendum of confidence in Kocharian proposed last month by Constitutional Court Chairman Gagik Harutiunian. (RFE/RL)