Masis Mayilyan, running for the post of Artsakh president, garnered 26.4% of the votes in the March 31 election.

Since none of the thirteen presidential candidates won more than 50% of the vote, he and Arayik Harutyunyan, who received 49.26%, will face off in a second-round vote on April 14.

Mayilyan posted the following Facebook message to his supporters

Dear compatriots.

I cordially thank the thousands of citizens, my team members and supporters who voted in my favor on March 31 in these difficult conditions.

The March 31 Artsakh national elections were held in extraordinary and unprecedented conditions. Despite the call and demand of most Artsakh presidential candidates and some of the political forces involved in the parliamentary elections to postpone the elections, the Artsakh authorities, however, decided to proceed at any cost.

Given these emergency conditions, it was impossible to secure the participation of international observers and, in order to avoid the danger, the Armenian observation mission had to change its methodology and carry out that mission at an unplanned extent.

We are now conducting political consultations and will soon inform the public of our further steps.