Opposition allegations cloud Armenia election
Hasmik Lazarian and Margarita Antidze , Reuters
Published: Tuesday, February 19, 2008
YEREVAN (Reuters) – Prime Minister Serzh Sarksyan won Armenia’s
presidential election in the first round, an exit poll showed on
Tuesday, but the opposition said voting was marred by beatings and
ballot-stuffing.
Most observers say Sarksyan would pursue policies followed by President
Robert Kocharyan during his decade in office. Poor and land-locked,
Armenia relies heavily on a long-standing alliance with Moscow.
Sarksyan won 57 percent of the vote, way ahead of his nearest
opposition challenger, former president Levon Ter-Petrosyan, according
to an exit poll by Britain’s Populus pollster for Armenian public
television.
Populus said Ter-Petrosyan scored 17.04 percent.
But Ter-Petrosyan’s campaign office said staff had been beaten and
even kidnapped at polling stations and vowed to hold a protest rally
in Yerevan on Wednesday, opening the specter of mass protests which
have followed previous elections.
Polling stations closed at 8 p.m. (11:00 a.m. EST) in the mountainous,
impoverished country of 3.2 million people and the first official
results were expected on Wednesday.
Armenia is squeezed between Turkey and Azerbaijan in a region that
is emerging as an important transit route for oil exports from the
Caspian Sea to European and world markets.
Sarksyan, after voting in a Yerevan school, said the priority was
for Armenia to conduct a free and fair election.
"It’s not important whether the election will be held in one or two
rounds. The most important point is that our election be trustworthy,"
Sarksyan said. The top two candidates will contest a run-off if no
one tops 50 percent in the first round vote.
The rest of the field is led by former speaker of parliament Artur
Baghdasaryan and Ter-Petrosyan, a former president who was forced to
resign in 1998 and is now seeking a comeback.
"I’m confident that I’ll win in the first round … I’ve voted for
freedom," Ter-Petrosyan said after casting his ballot.
"There are some ‘dirty things’ already going on," he said, but declined
to give details on specific cases.
TEST OF STABILITY
Previous elections in Armenia, high in the Caucasus mountains, have
been followed by mass opposition protests alleging ballot fraud.
Baghdasaryan also said there had been violations. "There is absolute
chaos at one polling station in Yerevan … which is impeding the
voting process," said a spokeswoman for his campaign.
"At another polling station people were distributing voting lists
that were already filled in favor of one candidate."
Kocharyan, 53, is barred by the constitution from serving a third
consecutive term. He is expected to remain influential but has refused
to disclose what role he wants until his replacement is inaugurated.
"I think no one has any doubt about whom I would be voting for. I
voted for stability and prosperity in Armenia," Kocharyan said, after
casting a ballot at the same polling station as his prime minister.
"I voted for Sarksyan because I don’t want Armenia to be plunged into
chaos again," said Khachatur Babayan, 63, a doctor. Many Armenians
associate Ter-Petrosyan’s time in office with economic meltdown and
power blackouts.
But others said they wanted change.
"I think that Levon Ter-Petrosyan will be able to help people, to make
our country really prosperous," said school teacher Hasmik Hovannesyan,
54, as she cast her ballot.
Armenia is still officially at war with Azerbaijan over the breakaway
region of Nagorno-Karabakh. Yerevan has frosty relations with Turkey,
in part because of a bitter dispute over the killing of Armenians by
Ottoman Turks during World War One.
(Writing by Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by Robert Woodward)