Anatolian Times, Turkey
May 13 2007

Pro-govt parties to sweep Armenian elections: partial results
05-13-2007

The ruling Republicans and other pro-government parties are set to
sweep Armenia’s parliamentary election, amid opposition complaints of
irregularities, partial results showed Sunday.

Results from 1,274 out of 1,923 polling stations showed the
Republican party of Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian far ahead with
288,431 votes, the Central Elections Commission said Sunday.

The pro-government Prosperous Armenia party had 129,683 votes,
followed by the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, a member of the
former ruling coalition, with 115,410 votes.

Anti-government parties trailed far behind. The Country of Law party
of former parliamentary speaker Artur Baghdasarian had 53,599 votes,
followed by the Heritage party of US-born former foreign minister
Raffi Hovannisian with 31,678.

About 1.3 million of Armenia’s 2.3 million registered voters took
part in the election.

Opposition parties were quick to denounce Saturday’s vote, alleging
widespread violations. Some are promising to organize mass
demonstrations Sunday to attempt to overturn the results.

The elections were seen as a key test of democracy in Armenia, which
has not held a vote judged free and fair since gaining its
independence with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. (AFP)