SARKISIAN EASILY WINS ARMENIAN PRESIDENTIAL VOTE
The Associated Press
February 19, 2013 Tuesday 05:10 PM GMT
Armenia’s president easily won a second term, according to preliminary
election results Tuesday, but his main rival claimed vote fraud and
thousands of his supporters held a protest rally.
President Serge Sarkisian received nearly 59 percent of the vote,
enough to avoid a runoff, Tigran Mukuchian, chairman of the country’s
Central Election Commission, said Tuesday.
The 58-year-old Sarkisian was widely expected to win. He has overseen
a return to economic growth after years of stagnation, although the
former Soviet republic still suffers from widespread poverty.
The closest of his six rivals, American-born Raffi Hovanessian,
got 37 percent of the vote.
Hovanessian, Armenia’s first foreign minister after the 1991 collapse
of the Soviet Union, on Tuesday called the election unfair and rigged,
claiming cases of ballot-box stuffing and voters being coerced to
back Sarkisian.
At a protest rally in the capital that drew 2,000-3,000 people,
Hovanessian declared himself the genuine winner and called on Sarkisian
to arrange a transfer of power by Wednesday evening.
The rally ended peacefully, but some participants later held a march
chanting “Raffi is president.”
Just over 60 percent of Armenia’s 2.5 million eligible voters cast
ballots in Monday’s election, the election commission said. All
the votes have been counted, but the winner will not be officially
declared until Feb. 25.
International observers from the Organization for the Security and
Cooperation in Europe say the election “lacked competition,” but they
noted improvements over the previous poll.
OSCE observers said the fact that several influential politicians
decided not to run may have “contributed to apathy and a lack of
trust among voters.”
Observer mission chief Tonino Picula said Tuesday that competition is
“critical” if Armenia wants to live up to democratic aspirations.
Another OSCE news conference in Yerevan, this one by its Office
for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, was disrupted Tuesday
when protesters stormed the room, jeering and demanding that OSCE
representatives leave the country.
“You’re legitimizing an illegal vote by your declarations!” said one
protester, Artur Minasian.
He and other protesters would not say whether they backed Hovanessian
or another opposition candidate.
The landlocked country’s economy is hobbled by the longstanding closure
of its borders with Azerbaijan and Turkey. Both neighbors reject the
occupation by Armenian troops and ethnic Armenian local forces of
Azerbaijan’s Nagorno-Karabakh region. That conflict shows no signs
of resolution despite years of international mediation attempts.