Author: Mamian George

LEBANON: ELECTIONS, THE CLOUT OF THE CHRISTIAN VOTE
by Stefano de Paolis

ANSA med
tml
June 5 2009

(ANSAmed) – BEIRUT – The number of Christians in Lebanon is steadily
decreasing and those who remain are increasingly divided, but their
political clout, and especially their choice between two opposing
parties, will be a decisive factor in establishing the majority in
Parliament after this Sunday’s elections. The Lebanese political
system dictates that 50% of the 128 seats in Parliament will be given
to Muslims, Shiites, and Sunnis, basically united but with their own
internal rivalries. The other seats will go to Christians, some of
whom are allied with pro-Western Sunnis and others with pro-Iranian
Shiites. Today, Christians make up one-third of the nearly four million
people in Lebanon. Their two main representatives are Free Patriotic
Movement leader, Michel Aoun, and the leader of the Lebanese Forces,
Samir Geagea. Both have decided to continue with their historic
rivalry, which started during the Lebanese Civil War in Lebanon from
1975-1990. Aoun, who in the 2005 elections received an unprecedented
landslide, made a solid agreement with Shiite movement Hezbollah, which
is supported by Syria and Iran and which, with the other important
Shiite group Amal, forms the ‘March 8’ alliance. Geagea is allied
with Sunni Saad Hariri, who leads the ‘March 14’ majority coalition,
supported by the US and Saudi Arabia and which also includes important
Christian leader, Amin Gemayel, leader of the Kataeb Party. A rivalry,
which after the end of the civil war and in the subsequent ‘pax
Syriana’ made a strong contribution to diminishing the political
clout of the Lebanese Christian community through isolation and
migration. Both leaders paid for the consequences of this: Aoun,
who in 1988 as army commander declared the "war of liberation" from
Syrian troops in Lebanon, was exiled to France in 1991. Geagea, an
‘ex-warlord’ at the time, was imprisoned in 1994 for war crimes;
he remained behind bars for 11 years. After their return to the
political scene in 2005 following the assassination of ex-Premier
Rafik Hariri and after 29 years of Syrian domination over Lebanon,
the two appeared to be willing to make a deal. Nonetheless old
grudges flared up once again, with an ensuing fight to become the
‘champion’ of the Christian community, which includes Catholics,
Maronites, Orthodox, and Armenians. However, if no one is betting
on a decisive shift in Aoun’s support towards Geagea or vice-versa,
the decisive factor in determining the balance of power could be the
small Armenian community. With 150,000 voters, they have traditionally
supported the majority. In this electoral campaign, Tashnak, the most
important Armenian political party has clearly chosen to favour the
alliance led by Hezbollah. (ANSAmed).

SERZH SARGSYAN LEAVES FOR ST PETERSBURG ON TWO-DAY WORKING VISIT ON JUNE 4

Noyan Tapan
June 3, 2009

YEREVAN, JUNE 3, NAYAN TAPAN. On June 4, RA President Serzh Sargsyan
leaves for Saint Petersburg on a two-day working visit to take part
in the work of Petersburg 13th International Economic Forum.

Within the framework of the forum S. Sargsyan will meet the President
of RF Dmitry Medvedev.

According to RA President’s Press Office, a meeting between Presidents
of Armenia and Azerbaijan is also scheduled in Saint Petersburg.

FIRST LADY OF ARMENIA DISOBEYS HER HUSBAND’S WISHES

ArmInfo
2009-06-03 12:27:00

ArmInfo. The First Lady of Armenia Rita Sargsyan has signed a
letter against development of Teghut copper-molybdenum deposit,
Head of ‘Ekodar’ public organization Hrayr Ayvazyan said at today’s
press-conference in "Urbat" club.

To recall, signatures collection against development of Teghut
copper-molybdenum deposit started in May, 2009. According to the
letter, the deposit development project violates the Constitution
and legislation of Armenia, as well as the international legal
regulations. Moreover, exploitation of the deposit spells destruction
of large forest areas, that will negatively affect the ecosystem of
the whole Lori region. As for the residents of the nearby villages,
they will be deprived of the opportunity to carry out an agricultural
activity and will be provided with a temporary job only. Moreover,
contamination of the environment with heavy metals and other repugnant
substances will negatively affect the people’s health and will cause
sharp growth of cancerous diseases, sterility, as well as birth of
children with mental and physical deviations. ‘We understand the
importance of the country’s economic development and creation of new
jobs, however, we demand from our authorities to implement such a
policy of the country development that will take into account the
health and welfare of the future generations, as well as the harm
which might affect the nature of our country’, the letter says. The
letter will be forwarded to Armenia’s President Serzh Sargsyan, Prime
Minister Tigran Sarkisyan and parliament speaker Hovik Abrahamyan.

As H. Ayvazyan said, about 5,000 people have already signed the letter.

Yesterday, the First Lady of Armenia Rita Sargsyan, as well as the
wife of ex-President of Armenia, Robert Kocharyan, Bella Kocharyan
also affixed their signatures in the letter. ‘It turns out that
Rita Sargsyan opposed the decision of her husband’, H. Ayvazyan said
and recalled that ACP Company received the governmental ‘approval’
for development of the deposit in 2007 when S. Sargsyan was prime
minister of Armenia.

LOCAL MONITORS CRITICIZE YEREVAN VOTE

AZG Armenian Daily
03/06/2009

Elections of Council of Yerevan Elders

Armenia’s largest election-monitoring organization gave on Tuesday a
largely negative evaluation of Sunday’s mayoral elections in Yerevan,
reporting a wide range of irregularities. The independent group It’s
Your Choice, which deployed observers in all of the city’s 439 polling
stations, listed in its preliminary report concrete instances of ballot
stuffing, multiple and illegal voting, voter intimidation, presence
of unauthorized personnel, and other procedural violations. It also
deplored pre-election violence, reports of widespread vote buying,
pro-government parties’ reliance on their "administrative resources"
and their tight control of election commissions The report concluded
that the May 31 elections "further deepened voters’ disappointment
with political parties and electoral processes." It said although they
marked a "small improvement" over last year’s local polls in Yerevan
districts, "there are no sufficient grounds to believe that these
elections passed the threshold of democratic, fair and transparent
elections." Presenting the report, the head of It’s Your Choice,
Harutiun Hambardzumian, said voting was particularly fraudulent in
the city’s Malatia-Sebastia district, scene of the largest number
of irregularities reported by the Armenian opposition, media and
observers. He said It’s Your Choice monitors witnessed ballot box
stuffing in five local precincts. "Ballot stuffing occurred when
large groups of voters made their way into those polling stations
and caused uncontrollable situations," Hambardzumian told a news
conference. "Also, in almost all Malatia-Sebastia precincts,
there was an atmosphere of fear. We were unable and even not
allowed to monitor the voting there in great detail." That there
were serious problems in Malatia-Sebastia is acknowledged by the
Armenian authorities. The Office of the Prosecutor-General on Monday
urged the Central Election Commission (CEC) to order vote recounts
in eight local precincts. The Special Investigative Service (SIS),
a law-enforcement agency subordinated to the prosecutors, said on
Tuesday that it has arrested a pro-government member of one of those
commissions and another Malatia-Sebastia resident on suspicion of
"falsifying vote results." Sona Truzian, the spokeswoman for the
prosecutors, specified that the SIS has evidence of the two men adding
"fake ballots" to the precinct vote tally. She said that as part of
the criminal investigation all ballots cast there will be recounted
at the Office of the Prosecutor-General on Tuesday. Journalists will
be able to attend the recount, she said. The precinct in question was
also the scene of a reported assault on two journalists and an election
observer who witnessed the ballot stuffing. The SIS has pledged to
investigate the attack. According to Truzian, the SIS has also opened
criminal cases in connection with fraud reported by Armenian media
in six other Malatia-Sebastia polling stations. "It is possible that
criminal cases will also be opened in connection with violations in
other precincts," she told RFE/RL, according to azatutyun.am.

EUROPEANS ARE TO SPEAK IN AUTUMN

Lragir.Am
14:37:42 – 01/06/2009

The mission of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the
Council of Europe to observe the municipal elections in Yerevan,
which observed the Yerevan Mayor election with the help of about
fifteen observers, presented its preliminary conclusions, stating
that the election was held positively.

"The Congress delegation welcomes and expresses its satisfaction in
connection with the Yerevan Mayor elections and in connection with
the fact that Armenia promoted the establishment of democracy with
the help of its own means. The Congress delegation registered some
progress in this connection in comparison with the previous Local
Authorities election in September 2008.

The democracy cannot be limited only to the electoral process. There
must be some culture concerning the election and its process. The
elections have to be simple, clear and transparent, even out of
the polling stations," stated the head of the CoE delegation Nigel
Mernegon.

He stated that the observers visited more than 230 polling stations
and spent there from 5 minutes to 2 hours time. "I do not think we
were able to do more within our possibilities. When we learnt of
different incidents and went to those polling stations we registered
some problems, which we will voice, we will also speak about those
posts where everything was going well".

According to him, the final report will be presented by October and
it will be presented to the PACE Autumn session. "We have to make a
thorough report where we will present the details", the head of the
CoE delegation. At the same time, he noted that he does not want to
say that everything corresponded to the European measurements.

"Of course, I have my own conclusions, but there are members of
our delegation, who did not express their thoughts, and we did not
manage to see everything what happened yesterday", stated Nigel
Mernegton. According to him, the mistakes, which he preferred not to
mention until the final report, may have influenced on the result of
the election, but not on its legality.

SERZH SARGSYAN: INTEREST OF ONE OR SEVERAL PERSONS CANNOT BE HIGHER THAN STATE INTEREST

Noyan Tapan
June 1, 2009

YEREVAN, JUNE 1, NOYAN TAPAN. RA President Serzh Sargsyan congratulated
the Republican Party of Armenia, Bargavach Hayastan party, and the
Armenian National Congress on the occasion of succeeding in Yerevan
Council of Elders elections and wished them fruitful work in the
staff of Council of Elders.

According to S. Sargsyan, the foundation of a new government system
is laid with the elections, which is a serious progress in the
direction of strengthening democratic mechanisms in Armenia. In
his congratulatory address he mentioned that the May 31 elections
and the whole preelection stage showed that "we managed to solve the
considerable part of problems existing in electoral processes and moved
forward in the direction of solving the others." As a result, according
to S. Sargsyan, this election was indeed a serious step forward.

The President presented his position in connection with violations
recorded at some polling stations: "The interest of one or several
persons cannot be higher than the state interest, and fair elections
are state’s absolute interest. They require not only exclusion of
violations, but also consistency in the issue of disclosure and
liquidation of violations.

Therefore all of us demand that each case of violation be disclosed
and everybody guilty be punished and called for liability with the
whole strictness of the law."

SERVICEMEN YIELDED THEMSELVES PRISONER

A1+
05:04 pm | June 01, 2009

Official

According to the NKR Defence Ministry, at about 2:10, on May 31,
Armenian servicemen Ohan Harutunyan and Gevorg Tovmasyan left the
military unit and appeared in the Azerbaijani territory. They were
called up on May 19, 2009.

Details are being revealed.

Investigation is underway.

TIGRAN SARGSYAN: DRAWING OF CASH -REGISTER COUPONS FULLY JUSTIFIED

ArmInfo
2009-06-01 17:38:00

ArmInfo. Introduction of the system of drawing of cash-register
coupons has fully justified itself, Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan
said at the opening of the children’s art exhibition ‘I am a citizen
of a legal state’ on Monday.

T. Sargsyan said that the fight against shady commodity turnover in
the country has been intensified thanks to this system. The premier
said that in the background of economic decline observed in the
country since the beginning of the year and reduction of transfers
from Russia and the USA, retail trade has grown for the first 4
month of 2009. T. Sargsyan welcomed the exhibition of children’
paintings wherein children expressed their own imagination of the
system of cash-register coupon drawings. Some of the paintings were so
interesting that the premier offered the State Revenue Committee to use
them in ads. The premier thanked all the children for participation
in the contest-exhibition. ‘It is the very case when participation
is more important than victory’, T. Sargyan said.

The initiator of the contest ‘I am a citizen of a legal state’ is the
Armenian State Revenue Committee with support of the Armenian Ministry
of Education and Science. Nearly 300 paintings by pupils of 5-11 forms
were submitted to the contest. The juries selected 90 pictures. The
best one was by Karine Yeghiazaryan (8th form, Getashen). The Best
School award was given to Getashen School No.2. All the winners were
given prizes and certificates.

RPA GARNERS 190171 VOTES

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
01.06.2009 11:13 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Preliminary results of elections to the Yerevan
city council have been already published. According to the Central
Electoral Committee, the Republican Party of Armenia won the election
garnering 190171 votes.

Prosperous Armenia country comes second with 91141 votes. The Armenian
National Congress got 69871 votes, Orinats Yerkir – 20959 votes,
ARF Dashnaktsutyun – 18648 votes, Labor Socialist Party 1951 votes.

Consequently, 3 parties were elected to the city council. Gagik
Beglaryan retained the mayoral post.

Armenian Nationalists Union calls on their supporters to boycott the
elections
29.05.2009 23:44 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ In connection with the oncoming elections into the
Council of Elders Armenian Nationalists Union Council issued a
statement, calling on their supporters not to participate in the
elections and political forces -to refrain from repetition of March
events. The statement says that neither at presidential elections or
elections into the Council of Elders could they find a single
political force to protect national interests.
`Armenian Nationalists Union Council calls on their supporters not to
participate in the elections, and those who are included into election
committees to provide equity and justice at their corresponding
election centers,’ the statement says.
The Union calls on political forces to refrain from repetition of
March events and proceed to struggle in political filed only.