ARMENIAN OPPONENTS PROTEST PRESIDENT’S RE-ELECTION
Transitions Online, Czeck Rep.
Feb 21 2013
Thousands of opposition protesters rallied in the center of the
Armenian capital of Yerevan during two days following the overwhelming
18 February re-election of President Serzh Sargsyan, Radio Free
Europe reports.
Armenian Central Election Commission results showed Sargsyan winning
his second term with more than 58 percent of votes cast, while the
runner-up and former foreign minister Raffi Hovannisian got 36.8
percent.
Hovannisian accused Sargsyan of election fraud and called for his
rival to admit defeat and to conduct “the transfer of power to the
Armenian people,” according to RFE.
“I am already the elected president of the Republic of Armenia,”
he told his supporters in Yerevan’s Liberty Square. “I want to come
here tomorrow at 5 p.m. and report to you that I met with Mr. Sargsyan
and that he had the strength, manliness … to say that the Armenian
people won and congratulate them.”
Sargsyan’s office said the meeting could be arranged but that it was
not clear what the opponents’ demands were, Armenia Now reports.
Observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe
called the election peaceful and well-administered but criticized
the fact that government agencies conducted campaign work.
From: Baghdasarian