The Brunei Times, Brunei Darussalam
May 13 2007

Armenia votes in key poll

YEREVAN
13-May-07

ARMENIANS voted in parliamentary elections yesterday in what is being
billed as a litmus test for democracy in this impoverished ex-Soviet
country.

Surveys show Armenians are hungry for reform, with an overwhelming
majority supporting radical change, but polls predict pro-government
parties will come out ahead in the election.

At midday, the voting proceeded smoothly and turnout had reached 10.5
per cent, the Central Elections Commission said.

The vote is seen as a key test of democratic reform in the small,
mountainous republic wedged between Turkey and Iran, where no
election has been judged fair since independence with the collapse of
the Soviet Union in 1991.

It is also a dress rehearsal for a presidential vote next year at the
end of President Robert Kocharian’s second term. Prime Minister Serzh
Sarkisian, Kocharian’s chosen successor, is expected to use the
parliamentary vote as a springboard to launch his presidential
campaign.

More than 20 opposition parties are running and analysts say these
divisions have scuttled chances of defeating two pro-government
parties _ Sarkisian’s ruling Republican party and the Prosperous
Armenia party headed by millionaire former world arm wrestling
champion Gagik Tsarukian.

Outside a polling station in the capital Yerevan, Samvel Isabekian
said he had voted for Sarkisian, a former defence minister and
military leader in Nagorny Karabakh, a disputed region seized by
Armenia from neighbouring Azerbaijan in the early 1990s.

"I voted for the Republican party because it has the strongest leader
and our country needs a strong hand," said Isabekian, 23.

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