International Herald Tribune, France
Feb 19 2008

Sargsyan on track to win election in Armenia; opposition cries foul.
Reuters, The Associated PressPublished: February 19, 2008

YEREVAN, Armenia: Preliminary results showed the current prime
minister of Armenia on track Tuesday to win the presidential election
in the first round, election officials said, while the main
opposition candidate alleged widespread violations.

With ballots from more than 10 percent of precincts counted, Prime
Minister Serge Sargsyan captured 53 percent of votes, while his main
opponent, Levon Ter-Petrosian, had 11 percent.

Sargsyan, 53, who was groomed by the departing president, Robert
Kocharian, was widely considered to be the front-runner in the race.
His opponent, Ter-Petrosian, 63, was president after Armenia gained
independence with the breakup of the Soviet Union.

After casting his vote in central Yerevan on Tuesday, Ter-Petrosian
asserted that there were "hundreds, thousands of violations."

He added: "According to my information, very dirty things are being
done."

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Arman Museian, a spokesman for Ter-Petrosian, said that dozens of
opposition supporters in various parts of the country had been beaten
by supporters of the government. He also claimed that there were many
reported cases of ballot-stuffing and vote-buying.

Larisa Torosian, a supporter of Ter-Petrosian who monitored voting in
the town of Abuvian, said that after she flagged violations at a
polling station she was beaten by a group of people who identified
themselves as Sargsyan campaigners. "It is not an election, it’s a
seizure of power," said Torosian, who had bruises around her left
eye.

The allegations raised concerns of instability and violence in
Armenia, where weeks of opposition rallies followed the re-election
of Kocharian in 2003. The opposition announced that it would hold a
rally in Yerevan on Wednesday to protest the violations and beatings.

Kosovo’s declaration of independence from Serbia on Sunday has added
an element of uncertainty for Armenians, many of whom see analogies
between Kosovo and Nagorno-Karabakh, a mountainous region in
Azerbaijan that has been under the control of Armenian and
ethnic-Armenian forces since a cease-fire in 1994 ended six years of
conflict.

The two presidential candidates have differing views on the future of
Nagorno-Karabakh. Sargsyan, a native of the region and a decorated
war hero, appears less likely to compromise than Ter-Petrosian, who
was forced to resign in 1998 after advocating concessions there.