ARMENIAN PM SARKISIAN WINS PRESIDENCY
By Maria Danilova
Associated Press
Wednesday February 20 2008
YEREVAN, Armenia (AP) – Thousands of opposition supporters marched
through Armenia’s capital Wednesday after an election official
said complete results showed that the prime minister had won the
presidential election.
Allegations of fraud and threats of mass protests have raised concerns
about the stability of the volatile, strategic country, located at
the juncture of the energy-rich Caspian Sea region and southern Europe
and bordering Iran.
An initial count of the ballots showed Prime Minister Serge Sarkisian
had nearly 53 percent of the vote in Tuesday’s election, Central
Election Commission chief Garegin Azarian said – enough to win outright
and avoid a runoff. Top opposition candidate Levon Ter-Petrosian had
21.5 percent, Azarian said.
Ter-Petrosian’s backers have alleged widespread fraud, and a crowd
gathered in central Yerevan to protest the results, swelling to some
20,000 as riot police with truncheons guarded the election commission
building a five-minute walk away.
The protesters then marched to the government headquarters in a broad
central square, many shouting "Levon!" and raising a clenched fist –
Ter-Petrosian’s campaign symbol. Helmeted police blocked the building,
and the protesters moved on, marching toward the election commission
building.
"I have no doubt that the authorities have falsified the election and
I will protest with all those who also feel cheated," Simon Grigorian,
a 38-year-old engineer, said at the protest.
Sarkisian was groomed by outgoing President Robert Kocharian and was
widely expected to win, in part because of favorable media coverage
and support from the state bureaucracy. He also has benefited from
economic improvements in recent years.
Ter-Petrosian accused the authorities of resorting to ballot-stuffing,
vote-buying and beating his activists who monitored the election. He
asserted that he was actually the winner.
"These figures have nothing to do with reality, we are overwhelmingly
ahead of them," his spokesman, Arman Museian, said of the results
announced by the election commission.
An influential international observer mission said there were concerns
about the vote count, but issued a generally positive assessment of
the election.
The election was "mostly in line with the country’s international
commitments, although further improvements are necessary," the mission
from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said in
a preliminary statement.
"The problems we observed, particularly during the counting, must be
addressed to increase overall confidence in the electoral process,"
Anne-Marie Lizin, one of the mission’s coordinators, said in the
statement.
The observers declined to comment on whether the problems could have
significantly affected the outcome of the vote.
A candidate needed to garner more than 50 percent of the vote to
avoid a runoff.
Sarkisian and Ter-Petrosian – Armenia’s first president after the
1991 Soviet collapse – were the two top contenders vying to lead the
South Caucasus nation, where more than a quarter of its 3.2 million
people live in poverty despite some economic progress in recent years.
The election campaign was dominated by the country’s economic revival
and efforts to resolve the status of Nagorno-Karabakh – a mountainous
region in neighboring Azerbaijan that has been under ethnic Armenian
control since a cease-fire ended six years of fighting in 1994.
Kosovo’s declaration of independence from Serbia on Sunday added an
element of uncertainty for Armenians, many of whom see clear analogies
between Kosovo and Nagorno-Karabakh.
The Armenian government says the region should be recognized as
a sovereign state, while Azerbaijan says it will never cede its
territory.
Armenia experienced an economic collapse after the Soviet breakup
and in the face of blockades by Azerbaijan and its key ally Turkey,
which is outraged by efforts to win international recognition of the
killing of 1.5 million Armenians by Ottoman Turks in the World War
I-era as genocide.
The blockades have hamstrung Armenia’s economy and cut it out of
lucrative regional energy and transport projects.
The U.S., whose large Armenian diaspora has a strong lobby in Congress,
has poured some $1.7 billion in aid into the country since 1991,
encouraging economic and political liberalization.
Armenia is eligible for millions more in U.S. aid, but a questionable
election could jeopardize Washington’s support.