Reuters, UK
May 12 2007
Armenians vote in poll seen as test of democracy
By Margarita Antidze
YEREVAN (Reuters) – Armenians began voting on Saturday in a
parliamentary election seen as a test of democracy in the Caucasian
country and a dress rehearsal for a presidential contest next year.
The Republican party led by Prime Minister Serzh Sarksyan — a
trusted lieutenant and favored successor to President Robert
Kocharyan — is expected to easily defeat the opposition when 2.3
million voters in ex-Soviet Armenia go to the polls.
"If the Republican party gets enough votes in the … election and my
party puts forward my candidacy for the presidential election, I will
take this offer with pleasure," Sarksyan told Reuters in an interview
on Thursday.
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Kocharyan is to step down early next year when his second term ends,
triggering a presidential election.
Western monitors said Armenia’s last parliamentary poll fell short of
democratic standards, and the opposition has threatened street
protests if there is ballot fraud on Saturday.
Polling stations opened at 8:00 a.m.(0300 GMT). Only one man was
waiting to cast his ballot at a polling station in central Yerevan
when voting began.
Armenia nestles high in the mountains of a region that is emerging as
a vital transit route for oil exports from the Caspian Sea to
energy-hungry world markets, though it has no pipelines of its own.
Armenia fought a still-unresolved war with neighboring Azerbaijan in
the early 1990s. It also has fraught relations with Turkey, in part
because Ankara will not recognize as genocide the killing of
Armenians in Ottoman Turkey.
Armenia refused entry visas to eight Turkish nationals who were to be
part of a 400-strong election observer mission from the Organization
for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).
OPPOSITION DIVIDED
Voters on Saturday are expected to credit Kocharyan’s allies for the
years of strong economic growth he has overseen. The opposition
meanwhile is divided and its members say they are not given fair
treatment on tightly controlled television.
Opposition leaders have said they will stage street protests if there
are any electoral violations on Saturday.
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"If there is ballot fraud in parliamentary election, I’ll be the
first who will go to the street," said Artur Baghdasaryan, leader of
opposition party Orinats Yerkir (Country of Laws), which is seen by
analysts as the strongest opposition force.
Smaller opposition groups may also win seats, although opinion polls
suggest the chief challenger to the Republican party is the
pro-presidential Prosperous Armenia, set up by wealthy businessman
Gagik Tsarukyan.
International observers say Armenia should hold fair elections to
amend its image spoiled by the last parliamentary election, in 2003,
which was described by Western monitors as falling short of
democratic standards.
"Armenian authorities have made a number of changes to the election
code and to the whole process to tackle some of the serious problems
that came up last time," Urdur Gunnarsdottir, a spokesperson for the
OSCE/ODIHR monitoring group, told Reuters.
"The real test is on election day and during counting. It’s important
for Armenia to show that authorities are capable of holding
democratic election. That is a corner stone."
Simmering tensions burst to the surface last month when gunmen tried
to kill a senior member of Sarksyan’s party and two blasts ripped
through the offices of Prosperous Armenia.
The violence has revived memories of a 1999 shootout in parliament
that killed the speaker and the prime minister.
(Additional reporting by Hasmik Lazarian)