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More than 69 percent of eligible voters turned out Tuesday.

According to widely-published analyst on Armenian affairs, Richard Giragosian, the initial and unofficial reaction from some US State Department sources to Tuesday’s election in Armenia is “surprise and outrage”.

Giragosian, who frequently contributes to ArmeniaNow and is a regular contributor for Radio Free Europe and a consultant to international agencies that include the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, lives in Yerevan but is on business in Washington.

Giragosian told ArmeniaNow that some government officials on Capitol Hill are aware of media reports of voting fraud and violence and that “the initial response is that the Armenian authorities have ‘gone too far’ and this election is already being criticized as ‘excessive’.”

In Yerevan, however, a top-ranking US embassy official vehemently disavowed Giragosian's claim.

"Richard Giragosian does not speak for the US Government," said Stephen Banks, Chief of Political Economic Section at the embassy, further telling ArmeniaNow that Giragosian's assertions "have no basis in fact that we can ascertain.

"Washington policy makers are still getting information and it would be premature for anyone to comment."

According to Giragosian's unnamed sources: “The incidents of violence and outright ballot stuffing by pro-government circles is being strongly noted, and the involvement of several oligarchs is particularly angering some in the State Department,” Giragosian reports.

The US opinion in Washington, in this early period, is that if reported incidents are true they are “unacceptable," the analyst says.